Chocolate & Bubblegum: A Mello Love Story Prequel
by snooze2010
Summary: Two newly orphaned children make their way into The Wammy's House. Jewel's having a hard time trying to fit in and adjust to her new life but there's one person who makes all her trouble worth while. Mello x OC
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **My second FanFic :D ...After the great response to my last FanFic, I fell so much pressure to make this one awesome too. I hope I can pull this off ;P

As requested it is a prequel to my first story. It's about Jewel and Mello's life before Kira. As it is though, I would like to make this FanFic a love story in its own right, so I am fudging some of the information and dates previously recorded in my other story. I hope you don't mind, and I hope you enjoy this story :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p>I wasn't scared... at least that's what I kept telling myself. It wasn't logical to be scared; there was no reason to be scared. I wasn't in any immediate danger, I had no irrational phobias; therefore, I wasn't scared.<p>

I hugged my knees up to my chest in the backseat, being especially careful to keep myself covered with my dress. Dresses were such illogical things. My parents who prided education above all things should have realised the impracticality of dresses and skirts and the like. But then, they hadn't picked this out for me to wear; they wouldn't ever pick my clothes out for me again. I stared stoically out the window.

I could barely see anything out the car window, even with my perfect vision. The window was fogging with my warm breath and the rain was sheeting down. I did manage to make out a wrought iron gate and the sign that hung on the brick wall beside it.

The Wammy's House

I stole a glance to my left and saw my brother looking out his own window. He was in direct contrast to the darkness of the interior of the car; what with his silver hair and albino skin. He was wearing all white and looked more ghost than human. But I didn't believe in ghosts.

They had told us that we were going to a school, but the building looming in front of us looked more like a mansion to me. It was absolutely huge and ornate. It had high archways and dark bricks.

"We're here," came the voice of the driver from the front seat. 'No, really?' I asked myself. I'd never say anything like that aloud though; it was always essential to maintain proper etiquette and decorum.

An older gentleman with greying hair came to the car door with an umbrella. My door opened and I cautiously got out; keeping eye contact with the man in the stiff suit the entire time. I heard two doors open and close behind me and just a moment later my brother and, what was his name, Watari, were standing beside us.

"Follow me," the man said coolly and we all started towards the door.

The door was just as grand as the rest of the building. It was dark, paneled wood, tall and arched. Stained oak I would imagine. We were lead inside.

On the other side of the door we met two more men. The one was tall and in another stuffy suit. He had glasses and a head of grey hair with a receding hair line.

It might've made me believe that everyone at this 'school' was an old grey man, but the appearance of the other male would have quickly changed my mind. He was in his late teens or early twenties at best. I couldn't tell how tall he was because he stood hunched over. He had raven black hair that appeared slightly unkempt and I noticed he wore no shoes. His skin was easily as pale as my brother's and mine; except for right under his eyes where he had dark, violet circles. There was something strangely different about him. He was, oddly fascinating.

The man with the umbrella had disappeared down a hallway and the remaining three men seemed to be discussing something of rather great importance. I took this opportunity to look around; as it was I couldn't be bothered to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The inside was even more monumental than the outside had been. There were vast hallways with dark paneled wood and marble flooring. Eccentric paintings and tapestries hung on the walls, and there were expensive looking vases on pedestals with striking flower arrangements in them.

Some school.

A sweeping staircase off the main hallway caught my eye. My gaze followed the steps up to the second floor where I discovered two boys, maybe a year or two older than I was, watching us.

There was something about the way they were looking at us... at me, that made me want to hide, to disappear; but at the same time, for some inexplicable reason, I was still so curious about them.

The one had reddish hair that almost matched the cherry-stained wood in the halls. He was on his hands and knees with his head between two spindles on the railing; presumably to get a closer look, without alerting the adults to his presence.

The other was leaning casually against the wall, like he couldn't be the least bit interested in the new arrivals. He was, like his friend, watching us though and what a penetrating gaze he had. I could see his steely blue eyes from here; they looked as though they were glowing in the gloomy darkness of the building.

His gaze was so intense, and there was something about him that just seemed to be drawing me in. I looked away quickly and hid behind Watari's leg, but it was too late, I felt myself start to blush. How embarrassing; why should I start to blush? I was probably just unnerved about being here. A new town, a new school, it was enough to make anybody nervous enough to blush, wasn't it?

I took a chance and looked back up to the second floor where the boys had been, but saw no one. They had already left.

"Hello, and you are?" I was pulled from my inner musings and looked over to the person who was now speaking to me. It was the one with the raven hair and the dark eyes. I looked down at my dress and started picking invisible bits of fuzz and loose strings off of it. I knew it was rude to not answer, but I just couldn't seem to find any words.

"I have her records right here L," said an older, rougher voice. I looked up and found Watari handing a folder of legal size paper to the raven haired one.

Was he really L? I mean, thee L? Even as young as my brother and I were, we'd heard about the legendary L. But surely this peculiar fellow couldn't be thee L... Could he?

He held the folder so oddly; like he didn't really want to touch it. This 'L,' scanned the papers quickly and then looked back down to me. "A sweet little jewel, isn't she? I'm sure we can expect great things from this one." He was looking right at me when he said it; he must have been talking about me.

"And here is the boy's file." Watari handed another folder to the one with a bad posture.

"Quite impressive. These two certainly are something." L said again.

"They'll still have to take the required tests," the one with glasses cut in. I sensed that although the other two agreed, they were displeased with the declaration.

"Surely you will allow them to stay the night at least," L said.

Glasses-Man seemed taken aback. "Well, we don't have a whole lot of room at the moment. And the girl's wing is being renovated; there's definitely no room for the girl."

'The girl'? That seemed a little cold. I stared down at my black dress shoes and tried to not think about how they were pinching my feet.

"There are extra rooms on the boy's side no? I'm sure one night won't kill them." No, this couldn't be thee L. Why would thee L be wasting his time arguing with an old man for the sake of two little orphans?

I wondered if I would ever get used to that word. 'Orphans,' would we be categorized like that for the rest of our lives? Before our parent's death it was always 'Twins'; would we just be the 'Orphans' now?

I looked over at my brother, at my twin, to see if I could tell how he felt about all this. But as usual there was nothing. No expression on his face, nothing in his body language. He was completely stoic and I wanted to hit him for it. He was so infuriating! How could he remain so neutral? I tried so hard to be like him, I envied him so much for his ability to always remain unemotional in stressful situations; something that I never seemed to be able to do. I always let my emotions get the better of me.

The grumpy one cleared his throat, catching my attention. "I said, follow me please." Everyone was staring at me like I'd gone batty. I just may have as far as I was concerned. My brother and I followed Grumpy Glasses-Man up to the second floor while Watari went back to the car. Presumably he was getting out belongings; what little my brother and I had left after the fire.

"This will be your room," he said motioning to an open doorway. My brother went in without a word and closed the door behind him. The man looked down at me next. There was something in his eyes that told me he was infinitely displeased with the situation he had been handed. We walked down to the next open doorway. "This will be your room. For now," he sighed.

"Thank you," I said, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone. This man knew nothing about me, but it was like he already didn't like me. Was I that much of an inconvenience to him? It seemed like I was always an inconvenience to everybody.

Glasses-Man turned back down the hallway and I let myself into the room. It wasn't terribly small, but it wasn't anything extra special either. Bed, dresser, end table, desk, closet; plain cream coloured walls, hardwood floors, small window across from the door, it was nice enough.

I went and sat down on the bed. I kept my head down and so I was moderately surprised when a small knock sounded on the door.

"Your things miss." The man who had come to the door with the umbrella brought my suitcase into my room instead of Watari.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

The man nodded and left; I went back to hanging my head.

Out of nowhere a voice came from my open doorway, "Hey." I looked up and found that it was the redhead from the stairs. "I'm Matt. Nice to meet you."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I'm genuinely curious; this is something I would like to know so that I could better improve my story...

Would you prefer:

Longer chapters, but not as many

Or

Shorter chapters, but more of them?

And... What do you think is a good length for chapters in general? For reference, I'll tell you that I tried to keep all my chapters last time around 3,000 words. This chapter was just short of 2,000.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **WOW. I am sooo tired right now. I've been looking for a job for a while now, but the best I could get was helping a store with their inventory for a couple days. Well let me tell you, doing inventory at my last job was a pain. Doing inventory at a store I don't even work for? ...I'm going to sleep for a month.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p><em>Out of nowhere a voice came from my open doorway, "Hey." I looked up and found that it was the redhead from the stairs. "I'm Matt. Nice to meet you."<em>

I just arched my eyebrow and went back to staring into my lap; hoping the redhead would take the hint and take a hike.

"Don't mind Roger. He's always like that with all the newbie's. He probably doesn't like your brother either. I mean, he is your brother right?" After receiving no reply from me he went on, "So what's your story? You from around here?" I looked back up and arched my eyebrow again. Either this guy was a total idiot for not getting my hints, or a total jerk for ignoring them. "So," he let himself into the room and pounced on the bed beside me. No respect for personal space. "Do you like video games?" he pulled a handheld gaming devise out of an oversized pocket and started pushing buttons. "If you're any good we should game sometime. Well even if you're not any good; I didn't really mean it like that." I remained silent and fought the urge to absolutely pummel the guy. "So you got stuck on the guy's side huh? It's just as well, the girl's side is all full," he didn't even look up from his game. "Don't get the wrong idea though, there are more guys here than girls. Most of the guys are already sharing rooms; I bunk with a friend of mine, you'll meet him. He's a little... well you'll see," he chuckled at his own little private joke.

"Um, excuse me," I said finally, "I really don't..."

"Justa sec, gonna level up."

"Matt," the 'a' sound was drawn out with exasperation. My focus was drawn to my door where, I assumed it was Roger, and my brother were. "Please excuse us; it is time for these two to take the tests."

'Tests'? As in plural?

"But they just got here," Matt whined beside me on the bed; he still hadn't looked up from his game.

"There is no point in getting them settled in if they will not be staying," Roger said matter-of-factly. He made a motion to go back down the hallway and so I got up to follow him and my brother.

"Good luck!" I heard Matt call from inside the room. I wondered if he would be there when I got back... if I got back. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy kicked us out the second we failed his tests.

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><p>My brother and I were lead through a maze of dark mahogany hallways accented with large windows covered with dark heavy fabrics. The ceilings and doorframes were so high I had to strain my neck if I wanted to see them.<p>

After being guided into what I imagined to be a classroom, my brother and I each took a seat at one of the desks. It surprised me how high the quality was. You'd never find anything so high class at a regular public school; I doubted most private schools had anything this nice. I tapped my long nails over the varnished top for a reason I just couldn't place.

Roger went to the front of the class and a moment later a lady in a black jacket and skirt accompanied him carrying a thick stack of papers.

"It is a three part test. You will have twenty minutes for each part," the lady said in a nasally voice. It seemed to suit her; she was tall and sickly skinny and her hair was a wiry mousy brown. "The first part will test the basics; your reading, writing and arithmetic. The second part will test your deeper cognitive processes, or critical thinking, if you will. The third part, well that is a surprise."

"I am sorry to have to put you through this so soon after your..." he seemed to be searching for the most politically correct term, "...incident." That wasn't it. "But it must be completed, and the sooner it is the better."

The woman placed her stacks of paper on the desk at the front of the room, slid the first two stapled packages off of it, and brought them to us. They were placed face down on our desks. Roger handed us each a pencil, pen and eraser while the lady pulled out a pocket watch. They must have actually been serious about the time limits. I stole a glance at the albino child beside me and found him sitting awkwardly in his chair with one of his legs tucked up underneath his small body. He appeared to not be phased by anything that was going on around him. I would've believed he had snapped from all the recent events if he hadn't always been like this.

"You may begin."

The hour past quite quickly. The first of the tests was a piece of cake; the reading was a synch, and the writing part wasn't too bad either. The arithmetic section was the easiest thing to complete on the planet. I was already far beyond that level of mathematics and was done with time to spare. At the end of the first twenty minutes, the sheets in front of us were replaced with another stack without a word. I found the second test to be slightly more difficult. There were complex puzzles, and angles I had to consider. It was all based in logic, but it tested a deeper understanding of complex principles. I finished in the nick of time, but felt that I had done fairly well by their standards.

When they were about to hand out the third test they took a moment. "Just answer the question," Roger said and nodded to the women to give us the papers. I stared at the top of mine in horror.

Case Study

Damnit! I almost cursed out loud. I skimmed through the sheets of inoffensive white documents before me and almost started to have a panic attack. The format was identical to the five-minute mysteries I used to read but longer and more challenging. Great. I would read dozens of mysteries a week, and I could never get one of them; and I didn't know why. I always had the most terrible time trying to find the one but of conclusive evidence that would be able to convict the perpetrator. I had figured it was my inability to remain attentive for the whole five minutes, but I think I knew deep down that that was taking the sucker's way out.

I decided to give it my best shot though, and began reading furiously through the given crime. Coming to the end was exactly like all the other times I had come to the end of a mystery. It was frustrating. I checked a clock on the wall; I had seven minutes left. I glanced out of the corner of my eyes and found my sibling casually swishing his pencil, writing his answer on the sheet. Great.

I read the question at the bottom of the last page. "Who does the detective suspect of the crime?" How on Earth was I supposed to know who the detective suspected! I didn't even know who I suspected! And then I remembered what Roger had said before we'd started this part of the test, 'Just answer the question.' So, could that be my answer then? Could I say that I didn't know, because the detective was a fictional character, a fictional character who might be a total idiot? The question wasn't asking who the criminal was after all, it was asking who the detective thought was the criminal. But suppose I was to assume that the detective would have made the correct assessment, as most of the detectives in these ridiculous stories did?

Four minutes left.

I debated writing my answer as being that the detective was free to make his own decisions, and I couldn't possibly know what he was thinking. But this was a very prestigious school; I doubted they'd give me any Brownie points for such a smart-mouth answer.

Three minutes left.

The silver haired boy beside my placed his pencil gently on the table.

Two minutes left.

I wracked my brain trying to decide between the test being a trick question or a serious one.

One minute left.

I felt like I was going to physically crack under the pressure and I had no idea why. Who cares if I didn't get into this snobby school? Who cares if I was sent to a regular old orphanage, and went to a regular old school like regular old people?

Something inside of me wouldn't let me accept that. Something inside of me cried for more, told me I was better than that, told me I couldn't... wouldn't be satisfied knowing that I hadn't at least tried. Something inside of me clamoured for a better outcome, something better than giving up, than forfeiting.

I furiously scrawled my answer.

"Pencils down." I left out a loud sigh that I wasn't aware that I'd been holding in. "Please leave your papers on your desks and go back up to the rooms." Oh sure, the desks and papers were ours, but until we passed these tests the rooms were just 'the rooms' and not 'our rooms'. "We'll have your work graded inside of the hour. We will let you know the results."

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><p>My brother and I left the room silently. Once we were in the halls he continued on, but I held back.<p>

"What are you waiting for?" he was ahead of me and didn't turn around. My brother was really something else. He was older than me but shorter, and he always slouched, which emphasised the difference in our heights. Because he never wore anything but white (which always seemed to bother me for some inexplicable reason,) and because his skin tone and hair were so fair he looked like a walking, talking, bottle of white-out.

Although, I wasn't really one to talk. I had just as fair a skin tone as he had and the same silver hair. I always preferred to wear black though, which only accented my pallor.

"I'll be right behind you," I muttered, and turned back to the classroom.

I crept stealthily to the door and strained to hear what the two inside were saying. I was probably having such a difficult time with it, because it occurred to me after a moment that they weren't speaking.

The halls were as silent as the dead, so the sudden, unexpected noise from behind me had me all but jumping out of my skin.

"Hey you!" I froze solid and adrenaline started pumping. I began silently praying that I wasn't going to be in too much trouble. "You're not supposed to be here!"

I turned slowly to face my accuser. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw who it was.

"Good grief," I hissed, "you almost gave me a heart attack!" I tiptoed speedily from the door and shoved the blonde-haired boy from the stairs around a corner. "Are you trying to get me into trouble?" I whispered sharply when I figured we were out of ear shot of the people marking my test and possibly deciding my fate.

"You do not need my help to get yourself in trouble. You were going about it just fine on your own." He arched his eyebrow and upraised me for a moment. "What are you doing down here?"

"Me? I'm taking a test, what are YOU doing down here?"

"You are not, at present, taking a test. You lied. And I happened to notice that the little white sheep end up back in his room without his tag-along clone. Speaking of which, you should really think about growing your hair out."

"Grow my hair out? What's wrong with my hair?" Yeah, I definitely hated this place already.

"It's a shame you look just like that weirdo up there," he nodded his head in the general direction of the boy's wing. "If you put a little yellow sundress on that freak you two would be impossible to tell apart."

"So what's it to you?"

"It's nothing to me, but it should be something to you," he turned to leave.

"W-where are you going?"

"Back to my room, where else?" I hung my head in frustration. "It's quiet time, everyone's supposed to stay in their rooms."

I felt him glaring down at me but I refused to look up and make eye contact. Instead I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted.

I heard the blonde sigh, "C'mon, don't be such a baby."

I felt him latch onto my shoulder and pull me along. "Hey!" I whined in protest as I was dragged back through the maze of halls and back up the stairs.

"Hey, you found her," Matt said when we got back to 'the room.' "You know, you shouldn't wander the halls. I mean, usually it's fine, but you're new and everything and... oop, hold on," Matt's game bleeped and he went back to pushing buttons. Mello walked in past me and sat down on the chair at my... at 'the' desk.

What was with these two? Talk about invasive!

"Um, yeah, I know this isn't my room yet, but why are you two here? You know my brother is right across the hall. I'm sure he'd love some company," he'd kill me for sending them over there, but it wasn't like I cared.

"Your brother's door was closed. Yours was open," Matt chimed.

I really didn't want to start off on the wrong foot with these people, but if I didn't get some privacy I was going to lose it!

I pointed my finger in the air and was just about to raise my voice when, "Miss, you are wanted back downstairs." I turned and found the lady with the mousy hair in my doorway. I really wished people would stop appearing like that.

I narrowed my eyes and put on my best expressionless face. I was so concerned with the constant appearance of unexpected people that it hadn't even occurred to me that it might be a bad thing that Roger wanted to see me so quickly after I finished my test.

However, that thought did finally come to me as Ms. Mouse and I were on our way down the carpeted stairs. I was going to be thrown out before I even unpacked... which would at least save me some time I suppose.

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><p>"Well now," Roger said when we entered the room. I hung my head, already defeated. I hadn't always been a pessimist; I was sure of that. Although, as I tried to remember the last time I'd had a favourable outlook for something, I, for the life of me, couldn't recall a time when that had happened. "About your tests; we have the results." No, really? "Your writing could use a bit improvement; your reading is satisfactory..." Well don't give me the good news all at once. "Your math is exceptional however," Okay, it's getting better... "Your critical thinking is," he checked the papers in front of him, "quite good. But I'd like to discuss your answer to the final question on the case study." Here it comes. I sighed heavily ready for the fireworks... and not the good kind. "That's quite an interesting answer you came up with. Tell me, how did you arrive at your conclusion?"<p>

"You told us to answer the question sir. The question didn't ask anything about who the criminal was." As I was explaining this to him without having taken my eyes off of my too tight shoes, I started coming up with thousands of different ways I could have answered the question. All of them seemed more logical than the answer I had given. Of course I would get all the ideas after the test; wasn't that always the way?

"That's exactly what we're looking for here." Say what? "New ways to look at problems, while still maintaining a degree of realism."

"Creativity in the realm of conformism?" I tired.

"Not precisely," the woman chimed in, "more like perspective realism."

"Interesting." I'd always had an interest in philosophy.

"So, in other words, we would be pleased to have you stay." I beamed. "Now, there are a lot of rules here," He handed me a folder, "You don't have to go through them all right now, but please look over them. If you have any questions my name is Mr. Ruvie. I have an office at the end of the hall. Also, as I'm sure you've been able to figure out, this is a very, special school." Besides being an orphanage too you mean? I asked myself. "Due to the sensitive nature that our facility handles, all the students' names have been changed; including your brother's. You may no longer refer to each other by your given names. Your brother has a new name, and you will be given one as well."

What kind of a 'school/orphanage' handled such sensitive material that the students' names had to be changed? Something was so sketchy about this place. Ever since my parents' death things just seemed to be getting weirder and weirder in my life.

"New name?" I asked timidly, as Mr. Ruvie, also known as Roger, had not continued.

"L suggested," he paused for effect I'm sure, "Jewel."

Jewel? Interesting.

"How do you like it?"

"I get a choice?"

"N-not really, but if you hate it well, I'm sure we could do something," he seemed taken aback. I'm sure most students wouldn't have asked such a ridiculous question.

"Actually it's perfectly fine. I was just curious." I was going to say I had been joking, but I don't think Mr. Ruvie, would have appreciated the sentiment.

"Well then Ms. Jewel, you may return to your room."

I gave a small, quite smile of gratitude and all but skipped back up the stairs.

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><p>I walked up back up to 'my' room and almost bumped into the blonde in my doorway. I looked passed him and noticed Matt was still lying across my bed.<p>

"Where're you going?"

"Back to my room, where else?" he brushed past me.

"So what's your name anyway?" I finally had the nerve to call after him.

He turned his head and shot me a look that said he didn't really want to answer, but he did anyway.

"I'm Mello."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Do you have any idea how annoying it is to try and write a story without writing someone's name? I really don't want to write Near's real name yet, but he also hasn't been dubbed 'Near' yet, so I am at a loss as to what I ought to call him. One can only say, 'My brother' or 'The albino' so many times before it gets annoying... Anyway, I hope you don't mind. And oh, while we're on the topic of Near's name, I think now would be a good time to mention that I did in fact borrow the nickname 'sheep' from another FanFic I read. I just loved it! It fits Near perfectly in my opinion, but if anybody has a problem with it, or wants credit, I will happy to either change it, or give credit where credit is due :)

But hey, I've got good news! I had an epiphany writing this chapter and I think I finally found my angle :D A genuine idea for my story if you will! These past two chapters have been quite choppy I'll admit, but I think I know where I want to go with this, so it should smooth out quite easily :)

Someone recommend a good anime for me :) Preferably something with an underlying tragic romantic theme.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **I'm sure I had something important and witty to say... but I've forgotten ^_^

I am getting over a severe cat allergy though, thank goodness :D I love cats to death, but I am deathly allergic, lol. And no, allergy meds don't help.

Also, sorry I haven't been updating too quickly, but guess what! I GOT A JOB... FINALLY! And the most interesting thing about it? I got a job at a place I didn't even apply to ^_^ My old job called me up out of nowhere, and asked me if I wanted to work for them again. YAY :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p>I watched Mello for a moment as he walked back down the hall to his room and as I did a strange, foreign feeling came over me. I just couldn't seem make heads or tails out of it so I decided to ignore it for the time being.<p>

"Are you still here?" I asked Matt as I entered 'my' room for the first time.

"You can play video games anywhere; it doesn't matter much to me where I am."

"You can't play videogames underwater," I teased. Being allowed to stay had, for some reason, left me in quite a pleasant mood.

"You could if you had a waterproof system," he looked up from his game and winked at me.

"Touché," I shrugged.

I placed the manila envelope that Roger had given me on my desk. I was pretty sure I couldn't break too many rules by just sitting in my room. I took a seat on the bed beside Matt and used the time to really take in my surroundings while Matt was engrossed in his game.

The furniture hadn't changed in the hour or more that I'd been gone. There was still the bed, dresser, end table, desk, and closet. I supposed I could unpack now. I got up for my suitcase and dragged it over to the bed. I didn't have a whole lot left after the fire; but then neither my brother's room, nor mine had been too damaged either. I plopped the heavy object onto the navy blue comforter, which beautifully accented the cream walls and matched the drapery over the window.

"Oi, do I smell smoke?" Matt asked, actually pausing his game to send a concerned look my way.

"Yeah, I guess you do," I averted my eyes. I had a feeling if Matt knew my story he might be inclined to feel pity for me. I also had a feeling that if Matt expressed that pity for me I might start crying. It wouldn't take a whole lot to send me over the edge. However, wasn't it rather conceited to believe that a total stranger would feel pity for me; a total stranger who had probably lost his parents in a similar, if not more traumatising fashion?

"Oh, I get it," there was sympathy in this voice, but thankfully nothing more. I began putting what few, smoke smelling belongings I had left into the various drawers; Matt stayed with me the whole time.

* * *

><p>"Hey, c'mon it's dinner time," Matt said after a while, breaking me out of my trance like state. He actually took me by the hand and pulled me up off the floor where I'd been compulsively folding my clothes.<p>

Matt led me out into the hall where we almost bumped into Mello again. The three of us started down the hallway, Matt and Mello engaging in some sort of male banter.

"Oh hey, just a second," I interrupted suddenly. We were outside of my brother's door. Matt stopped instantly, but Mello took another few steps before he realised we were no longer following him.

I knocked quickly on the door. "Hey N-" my hand paused midair as I remembered Roger Ruvie's words to me. I was no longer allowed to refer to my brother by his given name. So what was I supposed to call him? Mr. Ruvie had informed me that my brother had been given a name too, but I don't think he had told me what it was. Being at a loss for words, I simply opened the door.

I found my twin sitting hunched over on his bed, playing with one of the toys he'd managed to salvage.

"Hey, it's dinner, are you going to go down with us?" I really didn't think he would, but I felt a strong urge to ask. I had a terrible feeling that without our parents to keep us together, we wouldn't spend any time together at all.

"Alright," I had to fight to keep my jaw from dropping. He picked himself up off the bed and the four of us awkwardly made it down to the cafeteria.

It was a vast room, with high ceilings and maybe a dozen tables that sat four people each. All of them were covered with a white table cloth, and some of the tables already had kids sitting at them. Along one wall were ladies in hairnets and white aprons serving something that smelled delicious. I followed Matt and Mello's lead and got in line behind them. I was quite pleased to find that they had a number of vegetarian options.

The four of us took our trays to a table that was out of the way, but not completely secluded.

"So what're your guy's names anyway?" Matt asked with a mouth full of potatoes.

I looked to my brother expecting him to answer first. It wasn't that he was outspoken, but when people ever asked us questions, they always seemed to be talking more to him, than to me.

"Near," my brother said as casually as if he'd just suggested that it might rain.

'Near?' I thought to myself. How had they come up with that?

"And you? The one with two X chromosomes?" I shook my head to bring myself back from my own little musings.

"They called me Jewel," I said timidly, not sure of the reaction I might receive. I fiddled with a strand of my hair, a move that was more characteristic of 'Near.'

"Jewel?" Matt asked, another forkful of potatoes in his hand. Mello hadn't said two words to Na-Near or I since we'd joined him. "That's sure a pretty name. Hey Mello I bet..." but no sooner had Matt turned his attention to his blonde friend than he forcefully stood up, left his tray, and stormed off.

I didn't know why, but for some reason that really hurt. "Was, was it something I said?" I asked to no one in particular.

Matt took a moment before he answered, "Nah, you didn't even say anything. Don't mind him," Matt went back to his food, "it's just his time of the month."

I wasn't pleased with Matt's reference, but I pressed the issue further. "But is he usually like that? I can't help but think that I, or we," I said indicating Near, "had something to do with this."

"I really wouldn't worry about it if I was you, he'll be fine."

I wasn't convinced. I grabbed an apple off of my plate and left the rest of my uneaten tray of food on the table and went after Mello; I hadn't been that hungry anyway.

I poked my head into the hallway and checked left and right. Having not seen anybody I listened really closely, but couldn't make out anymore than the chattering children in the cafeteria behind me. The building was so vast and I knew so little about it, that if Mello happened to be anywhere besides his room, I might never find him. But then, a bedroom was quite a logical place to start.

* * *

><p>As it turns out I was right. I made my way back up the stairs and knocked on the door that I had seen Mello enter earlier.<p>

"What?"

I took this as my cue to open the door and let myself in. "Are you alright?" I asked.

"I'm fine, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I was worried something I said might have offended you." I usually didn't care in these situations, but then, I usually didn't get myself into these situations in the first place.

"Don't flatter yourself. I didn't leave because of you."

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you were okay anyway. You seemed kind of upset," I tried carefully.

"Whatever," Mello was sitting on his bed reading a book.

I didn't really want to interrupt him further, but I continued anyway, "I thought you might be hungry, you didn't really eat anything. I brought you an apple."

He looked up from his book and arched an eyebrow at me, "I'm fine."

I heaved a small sigh and tried again, "What book are you reading?" I don't know why I was being so persistent. Why did I care if Mello was upset? We all had our own problems after all.

I ended up telling myself that it was on account of I was new here, and bad blood with anyone was a good way to get off to a bad start.

Mello didn't answer me, so I took another couple steps into his room, noting that there were two beds, and that the other side of the room not belonging to Mello needed... well, a little tidying up. Hundreds of cords spilled out of a TV and connected themselves to various gaming systems.

When I was close enough I read the cover of Mello's book. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What a remarkable piece of work. It had been one of my favourites from before I could even read. My own well-read copy hadn't survived what the police had deemed an accident instead of arson.

"Oh, I just love that book," I whispered, more to myself than Mello.

"Yeah, well," Mello slapped the book shut and placed it on his end table. Suddenly he stood up from his bed and all but stormed over to me. I was so unprepared, I had no idea what was going to happen. I instinctively took a step back and put my hands up in front of me.

"Mello... Ai," I felt the apple being torn forcefully from my hand.

"Happy now?" he took a pronounced bite from the red fruit. "I took the apple, will you leave now?" his tone was harsh, but there was something in his eyes, something that...

"Mello, that isn't anyway to speak to a jewel, let alone, the Jewel."

I blinked a couple times in confusion, and turned around to find Matt and Near in the hallway behind us. Near was entering his own room with absolutely no interest in what was happening down the hall and Matt came into the room and leaned against the door.

"Mind your own business Matt," Mello took the apple I'd brought him and went back to his bed. "And clean up your side, it's looking disgusting."

Wait, MELLO was Matt's roommate? So that's what Matt had meant when he'd said 'you'll see' when describing his roommate. I was beginning to see alright. I turned to storm out.

"Hey wait a minute," Matt threw himself across the doorway to block my exit. "Do you want to stay and have a game with me? I have dozens," he motioned towards the stack of game cases which were scattered across the floor by the TV.

"Maybe some other time Matt, I'm not feeling too well," I told Matt. I told myself it was just because I was hungry and hadn't eaten anything.

"Oh, well, okay," Matt seemed genuinely disappointed, but I couldn't be concerned with that now, I was sure I had more important things to do.

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><p>Once in my room however, my lie to myself became ever more pronounced. I had absolutely nothing to do. I had finished unpacking and nothing else seemed to require my immediate attention. Roger had said that someone would be up to see me before the weekend was over to discuss my class placement, but as it was that hadn't happened yet. I had nothing to do but sit and let my thoughts consume me.<p>

It wasn't too long however, before I was consumed by my hunger as well as my thoughts. My stomach was grumbling and just wouldn't stop. Which was odd I found; after my parents had died I'd started eating even less than I had before the accident, but for some reason I was strangely craving food.

I grabbed at the manila envelope of rules that were on my desk and quickly skimmed through them. There didn't seem to be any rules regulating food consumption after meal hours.

I peeked into the hallway, and finding no one, and hearing no noises, I made my way back down to the cafeteria.

It had cleared out rather quickly after dinner in my opinion; there wasn't a soul in sight. I headed for the far wall where a swinging door opened into the kitchen. I tiptoed through it in search of leftovers but found Mello instead.

"Good grief, you almost gave me a heart attack," I hissed as he stood no more than a foot in front of me.

"I gave YOU a heart attack? You're the one who trounced in here unannounced," he took a noisy bite from a chocolate bar he was holding. "What are you doing in here?"

"Me? What are you doing in here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he waved the chocolate bar in front of my face. "Tch, and they're letting you stay here. Wammy's entrance standards must be seriously declining," he scoffed at me.

"I'm just here to get some food okay, I kind of didn't get any because I was too worried about you," I said in my moist condescending tone. I really didn't like how we'd just met and he was already looking down on me.

"I never asked you to come after me."

I pressed my lips into a fine line and fought the urge to cross my arms. I was still so hungry, but somewhere along the line had lost the desire to actually eat anything. I turned around to go back upstairs.

"Hey wait!" Mello grabbed my arm and pulled me back, "Listen." I heard it then, footsteps in the hall, and a voice; no, two voices. "C'mon," he pulled me back into the kitchen and towards a pantry in the back.

"Where are we...?"

"Shh," he pushed me through the pantry door and we ducked down behind two sacks of potatoes. We were easily visible, but it was better than nothing.

We sat for a moment as we heard the voices enter the dining room, and then the kitchen. The speech was a little indistinct, but I wasn't really worried about it anyway. For whatever reason I couldn't get over the proximity between Mello and I. I doubted that there was even an inch separating the bare skin of our arms.

All of the sudden Mello said, "C'mon, let's get out of here." I realised that not only were the voices gone, but we had been sitting there for a lot longer than I thought we had. I wondered how I'd lost track of time so easily.

Mello pulled me by my arm again and led me to first the pantry door, then the kitchen door. After checking left and right a couple of times, we crept through the dining room, and checked again when we made it to the hallway. Once we made it to the stairs Mello released my arm and we made our way back to our rooms.

"But I'm still hungry," I said as we made it to my door. I hadn't meant for it to come out so whiny, but it had.

"Here, just take this," he tossed a small, pink package over his shoulder at me as he walked to his own room.

It was bubblegum.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>And today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D

Yes, of course I just made that up on the spot... but I'm actually considering making it a 'tri-chapter' thing lol ^_^ The only trouble is I don't know if I can come up with an interesting, inoffensive (that part is key, haha,) question to ask every three chapters.

Today's:

What is your all-time favourite anime and why?

At first I was only undecided about three: InuYasha, Death Note and Naruto. But just a little while ago my friend told me to check out Ouran High School Host Club, and if that isn't the funniest anime I've ever seen I don't know what is.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **So, I totally made a dick (- can I say that without getting in trouble?) move the other day. I would like to publicly apologize to my bestie Lauren for forgetting our coffee date... AGAIN.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p><strong>Tuesday November 21, 2006<strong>

It was very nice of them to send an alarm clock up to me before I went to bed. An alarm clock preset to seven A.M., an alarm clock set to go off on Sundays. Yes, it was very nice of them. I woke up cursing the day I was born, as well as whoever it was that invented such a monstrosity as an alarm clock.

I'd had a dark and dreamless sleep and was in an unpleasant mood. So much so that when I heard a loud, relentless knock on my door I debated throwing myself out the window; myself or the person who was knocking.

"Hey Jewel, its breakfast time, get up!" I heard Matt calling. Didn't these people know the meaning of the phrase, 'to sleep in'? I sighed heavily and threw my covers back.

I was just standing up when suddenly my door was thrown open and Matt stood, arms wide like his team had just won the Stanley Cup. Man, I hated morning people. "Jewel!" he called loud enough to wake the dead (or at the very least everyone else in the boy's wing,) and leapt at me.

"EH!" I cried as we both went crashing onto my bed, and off of the other side. We landed with a thud on the hardwood floors under my window. "Are you crazy?" I asked him seriously when we finally managed to untangle ourselves.

"Maybe," he winked. I was absolutely incredulous.

"Matt, quit horsing around," came another voice from my doorway. I was staring to believe that my doorway was the central point of the universe and was receiving all the inter-dimensional travellers. There's no way 'early birds' were from the same dimension as night owls like me.

"Mademoiselle," Matt held his hand out to me and my resolve went out the window. I sighed in defeat and let him haul me up from the floor; I just couldn't be mad at him if he was going to be stupidly chivalrous like that.

"Should I get changed first?" I asked, noting my oversized pyjama pants and t-shirt. At least two inches from my blue, plaid bottoms were dragging on the floor and my AC/DC shirt was so huge it hung crookedly off of my petite frame and exposed my left shoulder.

"Yeah sure, get changed," Matt shrugged, "there just won't be any food left by the time you get down there." I tried to tell if he was exaggerating, but it was impossible; my eyes and ears still hadn't focused. I was still half asleep, even after being dropped on the floor. "Come, we've wasted too much time as it is," Matt grabbed my arm and pulled. The comical way he was acting reminded me of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. We were late for a very important date; we were late for a date with food. Now what kind of date is more important than that?

I yawned loudly as matt pulled me through the halls. It felt like we were moving so quickly, but every time I caught a glimpse of Mello it was apparent that he wasn't walking any faster than a snail, but was still managing to keep up with us. This was such an unholy hour to be awake; my mind kept playing tricks on me.

"Oh, wait, Near," I thought suddenly.

"Never mind him, he's already down there." Right, Near was a morning person; I furrowed my brow at the thought.

They were serving bacon and eggs this morning. Great.

As a vegetarian and not a vegan I was technically allowed to eat eggs, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. 'Hidden eggs,' were alright; eggs in cakes and pancakes were fine, but scrambled eggs weren't going to happen. I picked up a couple apples and a slice of toast.

The three of us joined Near who was already sitting by himself at a table.

* * *

><p>Our breakfast was eaten in silence. Even Matt, the most animated one of the group seemed unusually quiet. There was a butter knife on the table and I felt like dramatically picking it up and swinging it around to cut the tension in the air.<p>

"Near, Jewel," someone said from behind us suddenly. I turned around in my chair and found Roger standing over us, holding two rather large folders. Great, more folders. "If you're quite finished with your breakfast, please come with me." Something told me that whether we were done or not we ought to follow him. Near and I got up from our seats and followed Roger out of the cafeteria.

"Alright," Roger started once we were out of the commotion of the cafeteria, "these folders contain all the school work with you two will have to catch up on before the New Year starts. Now, winter break is coming up quite quickly, so you should have a good chance at catching up. You'll have to work hard, but it is essential you complete the package. Also, your respective timetables are inside, if you don't know where a class is, just ask a fellow student," he handed the packages to us. They were at least three inches thick and felt like they weighed twenty pounds. "I've taken the liberty of having the textbooks each of you will require sent up to your rooms. Classes start tomorrow at nine, don't be late." With that Roger turned on his heels and walked back down the halls.

Near made a move back towards the stairs. "Where are you going?" I asked him.

"We have until the start of the New Year to complete all the papers inside these folders. Assuming there are..."

"Yeah I get it, never mind," I could do the math just as easily as he could.

No sooner had Near disappeared around the corner than Matt came bursting through the cafeteria doors, flowed closely, albeit not as dramatically, by Mello. "So, you've got your class assignments eh?"

"Yeah, I guess," I sighed.

"C'mon, let's go have a look," Matt took my arm and lead me in the direction Near had left in. 'Near,' I wondered if I would ever get used to calling him that.

Mello went back to his and Matt's room, while Matt stayed and gave me a hand with the folder. It hadn't taken the two of us too long to sort through all my papers. They were all worksheets from all the basic classes one would have to take in any regular school, plus a couple extras. The idea was that I would have to read chapters in the textbooks (which had not so lovingly been placed on my desk along with an old-school computer) and then complete the corresponding worksheets. Child's play really, none of them looked terribly difficult.

* * *

><p>Later that afternoon in order to avoid another bothersome knock-attack from Matt around lunch time I decided I would be elsewhere when he showed up. I took the liberty of showing myself around the buildings and grounds of the school. It was all pretty quiet, I assumed because it was a Sunday.<p>

Most if not all of the rooms I passed were empty, until I came upon what I assumed was a library.

"Oh, hey," I said so the blonde occupying the room. I pushed open the large oak door and let myself in. The room was wall to wall books, most of them older and dustier than one would find in a conventional library.

"Hey," Mello sighed exasperatedly, and looked back down at the textbook he had spread out in front of him.

"Whatcha working on?" I asked cautiously. Mello didn't seem to like me for some reason, and I didn't need to give him any more of an excuse to hate me.

When I received no answer I crept further into the room, and stalked over to Mello so I could read over his shoulder. He was working on a complex set of math formulae and appeared to be stuck on one in particular. After studying the page for a moment I came up with a solution. The solution however, presented a new problem.

If Mello already didn't like me, should I tell him how he might go about solving his equation and have it appear as though I was showing off, or should I just let him do it on his own? "You'll want to try the Taylor Expansion," I tried quietly, as I started picking invisible threads off of my black cardigan.

Mello didn't say anything for a moment and I was worried I'd insulted him, when finally he came back with, "I hadn't thought of that." I let out a breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding and decided it was safe to take a seat beside him.

I silently watched him for a while; one again hyperaware of our close proximity, and I didn't understand why. I took this opportunity to study Mello a little more closely; he was oddly intriguing. Matt was an open book with his flamboyant antics, but Mello was quite the opposite and hard to decipher. I watched him brush his pencil across the worksheets in front of him. His writing was neat enough, but his procedure was highly inefficient; he took too many large and cumbersome steps to arrive at the same answers that would take Near or I a fraction of the work.

As time wore on and the rays of the sun angled differently into the grand windows on the south wall they glinted off of something that caught my eye. A frosted glass and crystal chess set.

"Hey, want to take a break and play a game of chess with me?" I asked hopefully.

"Some other time."

"Oh, sure." I tried not to be too offended. After all, he had said 'some other time' not a flat-out 'no.'

"Hey Mello, I've been looking all over for... oh, you're in here," came a voice from the doorway. I mentally jaw-dropped; it was like I had a homing beacon for him.

* * *

><p>Matt had managed to pull me away from the library so that we could go have lunch. Mello on the other hand was quite adamant about staying and finishing his work. While we were walking through the halls to the cafeteria I made a decision. "Matt, can I ask you a question?"<p>

"Yeah sure, go for it."

"Okay, well I hope you won't take offence, because I'm honestly just curious, but why do you keep..." Now that I'd actually brought it up, I wasn't sure as to how to phrase it.

"Insisting that we do things together?" Matt finished for me.

"Sure," I said sheepishly.

Matt half chuckled, sighed, and ran his hand through his auburn hair. "Well, there are a couple reasons," he started. "For one you're new, it'd be nice if you felt welcome here..."

"And for two?" I asked when he didn't continue.

"Let me make you a deal Gem, I'll tell you my number two at the New Year's party alright?"

"A month? You're asking me to wait over a month? Why can't you just tell me?" I was more than curious now.

"Just go with me on this one, I'm working on an experiment. A social experiment." Matt winked at me again. I felt a bit uncomfortable but I decided it couldn't hurt. I always wanted to be a psychologist, and social experiments were part of the game; I couldn't fault him for that.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was more or less uneventful. I wanted to go to sleep early if I was going to have to wake up and go to classes the next morning, but I found myself unable to sleep. I decided to take another walk around the building to familiarize myself with the place.<p>

It wasn't too hard to make my way around in the dark. The high, wide windows captured the majority of the moonlight and illuminated the halls. I took my time, admiring the paintings from artists I couldn't name, and the tapestries from eras I couldn't place. Near's and my parents had always pushed the cultural aspect of our education, but I could never seem to catch onto it. Sure I could pick out artists like Van Gogh and Picsso, Manet and Monet, and tell the difference between a gothic architecture styles versus Romanesque, but not much more than that.

It was just about then when I heard an old grandfather clock gong the time; it was one in the morning. I really needed to get to bed, and get some much needed sleep if I ever hoped to function tomorrow. I half ran, half tiptoed back down the maze of hallways. I was almost to the stairs when something caught my eye. Down the hallway, from under the door that lead to the library, a stream of yellow light poured into the halls. No one would be working this late though, would they?

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Yes, Canadian reference there with the 'Stanley Cup.' I suppose a British reference would have been more appropriate, but I needed SOMETHING Canadian in my story ^_^

So I'm quite pleased that Matt can call Jewel 'Gem.' Know why? Want to know why? I'm not sure if I mentioned it in my last story but I originally wanted Jewel to be a Gemini (as in the star sign, and then have that be her Wammy's Name. But as it worked out, she was Near's twin, and being Near's twin they would share the same birthday. In sharing the same birthday Jewel became a Libra instead of a Gemini. However, another word for a jewel is a gem :P Gem = Gemini. So it works.)

Have a great day everyone :) Don't forget to review ^_^

Sorry if this chapter kind of sucked by the way. I wanted to update while I was on my days off, and so I wrote most of this at like... well it's 3 A.M. right now, so yeah. I'm going to upload when I wake up ha-ha. Next chapter gets interesting, I promise ;P A little more Mello x Jewel action ;D


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Man I've been so busy lately and I don't even know how or why or what's going on ha-ha. One day I'm working, the next I've got pre-planned hangout sessions with my friends. And this week is the family reunion. I wasn't exactly invited, but I've got a plan to see all my cousins and uncles/aunts. They will not escape without visiting with me :P

Just want to shout-out to all my reviewers, and people who are favouriting/watching, you guys make my life ^_^ 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p>It had been one heck of a busy week. Trying to catch up with all the old work that had to be completed as well as keeping up with all the current material had left me in quite a daze. Keeping my mind occupied was good for me, I told myself though. It left me less time to think about anything else. I didn't have time to think about Near's and my situation. I didn't have time to think about how we were orphans, how our parents had died and how we'd just been dumped in some sort of orphanageschool for the gifted.

I made my way through the hallways to my first morning class on my first Friday and as I rounded a corner while I was rubbing sleep from my eyes I accidentally bumped into someone and dropped my textbooks and papers.

"Oh excuse me," I said, rubbing the last of the haze from my eyes.

"Hey, it's the new girl," I heard a guy say as I bent down to retrieve my belongings.

"Yeah I've seen her around," said another.

"Jewel I think her name is," said a third.

"Listen, I'm really sorry for bumping into you," I said, grabbing the last of my papers and standing up. There were three guys in front of me, all of them about a half a foot taller than I was.

"Jewel huh?" the first guy said.

"Uh, yeah, I was just..."

"Naw, that's not a suitable name for this one," said the first guy again. "She's more like a 'Penny'. I think the name Penny suits her."

'Penny'? Where had they come up with that? I couldn't help but notice the subtle shifts they were making, edging themselves around me. I was getting a bad vibe from these guys. The first one stayed straight in front of me while the other two manoeuvred so my sides. This was not something I needed first thing in the morning on a Friday.

"'Penny' that's a good name Red," the one on my right said. He was the tallest as far as I could tell, had long, greasy black hair and an acne problem.

"You sure she's worth even that boss?" the shortest and more heavyset one on my left added.

I glanced from left to right nervously, trying to keep calm. I mean really, what could they do in the middle of a hallway? They were probably just trying to freak me out. They were succeeding, but I didn't have to let them know that.

I straightened myself up and pushed my shoulders back. "Excuse me please, I have a class to get to."

"Aww, what's wrong Penny?" the one they'd called Red asked. The name more or less suited him; he had orange hair and freckles dotting his face. "Don't you like us?"

"We just might be insulted if you leave," said the greasy one.

"Please excuse me," I said more forcefully. "And my name is not Penny."

They started moving in closer to me and my breathing became more taxed with each inch they shuffled. The greasy one laid a long, gangly arm around my shoulders making my skin crawl. He leaned down so that his face was right next to mine. I shrunk away from his closeness but it wasn't of any use; I was boxed in. The chubby one threaded his arm around the small of my back and pressed himself against me, making me cringe even more. I wanted to cry out for help but could barely manage a weak whimper. I squinted my eyes shut and just hoped they'd leave.

"Hey!" someone shouted behind me and I sighed with relief because I knew whose voice it was. "Don't you losers have a class to get to?"

"Get lost Matt, this doesn't concern you."

"Oh, but it does."

I was still too afraid to look up and see what they were all up to.

"Whatever, come on guys, we're gonna be late," the freckled guy said. I was relieved when I felt the other two release me. I heard them walk down the hall and finally had the nerve to look up.

"You alright?" Matt asked, coming up behind me. I turned to face him and saw genuine concern on his face. His hand was hovering in mid air as though he couldn't make up his mind whether or not he wanted to lay it on my shoulder himself, or whether he thought that would just make matters worse after what had just happened.

"Sure, I'm fine Matt, thanks," I tried to casually wave him off. I was so eternally grateful to him, but at the same time I just wanted the whole matter forgotten.

"Man, you're lucky I went for that extra slice of toast this morning. Do you want me to walk you to your class; you're going to be late."

"It's fine Matt, but thanks a lot, really."

"Well, okay," he didn't seem convinced. "My class is down this hall, so I guess I better get going or I'm going to be late too."

"Yeah for sure," I said, trying to shoo him off.

"Alright, well I'll see you later Jewel."

"Sure thing Matt," he rushed off towards his class, and I rushed off towards mine.

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><p>The teacher had already started lecturing by the time I made it to the class. Not the best way to start off on the right foot that's for sure. All eyes were on me as I took a seat in the back. I tried not to look at anybody, but I couldn't help but notice that the last remaining seat was right beside... Mello.<p>

I hung my head as I opened my textbook and workbook on the desk. The room was mind-numbingly quiet and I could swear the whole class could hear my heart pounding. It felt like forever before the teacher started speaking again, and it wasn't until then that I could release the breath I was holding. On the bright side, at least this was a math class.

"So where were you?" Mello whispered coolly beside me when the rest of the class had gone back to their work. We'd already had a number of morning classes together and he must've noticed how hard I always tried to make it to them on time. I hung my head further; how was I supposed to answer that? "Yeah, or don't answer me, that's cool," he said callously. I made a motion to answer him, but I just couldn't find my words. Mello seemed to sense this and asked, "Hey, are you alright."

I don't know why but it was harder to put on the brave front with Mello than it had been with Matt. "Sure," my voice cracked.

"Hey, what happened?" I could sense that he almost didn't want to ask, like he felt if he asked he'd be setting himself up, but for some reason he asked anyway.

I couldn't contain it anymore. Something inside me snapped. I bolted up in my chair, left my books on my desk and ran into the hallway. I raced through corridors and past classrooms where teachers lectured about things that at the moment couldn't have meant less to me.

I finally made it out a back door and into a lush, green garden with every type of tree and flower that one could ever hope to find. Underneath the willow tree was a bench and that's where I sought my refuge.

'I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry,' I repeated my mantra over and over to myself until I heard the footsteps on the grass beside me.

"What are you doing?" Mello asked; he sounded more frustrated with life than I was. "You're going to get yourself into so much trouble."

"I don't care. They don't care about me, and I don't care about them."

"Who's 'they'?"

"The people at this stupid school. Don't they get it?" I hissed, "I just lost my family! It hadn't even been two days before they carted Near and I off to this stupid school, and it wasn't two days after that that we were just expected to go on with our lives like nothing happened. 'Go to classes,' 'Get good grades,' 'Completely forget about the life you just left behind.'" I mimicked my impression of Rodger and the other adults here. "Our house burned down, we lost all but everything, spent the night in a police station, and once the weekend was over we're back to school. Most kids wouldn't have stopped crying by now, and we're just expected to go on with our lives like nothing happened. Heaven forbid we shed a single tear or show any weakness whatsoever." I couldn't believe I was ranting like this, I didn't know what had come over me.

Mello sat down on the bench beside me and leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. I could only imagine what he was thinking, 'Great, I just had to go after her. Now I have to sit here and listen to her complain because anything else would be rude.' I pouted as I thought about it.

Neither of us said anything else for the longest time. I felt so terrible for making him sit here with me. "Listen, I'm sorry you had to stay out here and keep me company. It wasn't fair to..."

"Well that's life isn't it? Life isn't fair, end of story," Mello interrupted. I was kind of shocked at his words. "C'mon, we've got classes," he stood up and held his hand out to me, I timidly accepted it.

I didn't really know what to make of what just happened. His words had been so cold and unfeeling, but there was something in his tone that said he understood, there was something in his tone that had me feeling better.

We walked hand in hand back to the school building, only letting go of each other when Mello handed me my textbook and notebook. Mello had thoughtfully picked up my own books as well as his own, but our math class had ended quite a while ago and I had to go back up to my room to trade textbooks. Mello didn't seem to need to and walked to his next class alone.

* * *

><p>The rest of the morning went by in a daze. Matt found me at lunch and we sat with Near; Mello was nowhere to be found.<p>

Matt and I didn't have any classes together, but he pretty much stuck to me like glue for the rest of the day. After my last class we took a walk around the grounds.

"They're going to have the marks posted soon," he said nonchalantly.

"Marks posted?" I asked worriedly.

"Yeah at the end of every week they post the students grades on the wall. It's supposed to make us all want to try harder or something. See, everyone wants to be first, and if they can see where they are in comparison..."

"They'll have the motivation to do better," I finished for him.

"Yeah that's about it."

We made it back into the school and Matt lead me through a bunch of halls until we joined a group of about twenty students in one of the shorter corridors.

Matt started walking me towards the end of the line, "Don't feel bad if you're right at the end. You do have to catch up on all the work that the rest of us have already done. You'll probably move up a little later..."

"THE HELL!"

Matt's and my neck snapped to the side at Mello's outcry. I hadn't seen him since I'd watched him walk down the hall to his next class, but now he was standing beside Near who was compulsively curling and twisting a lock of his silver hair. Murmurs broke out in the crowd and finally it reached us what had happened.

"Mello's not first..." "That white haired boy..." "Matt got bumped too..." "It's that new kid..." were the whispers.

"Gut bumped too did I?" Matt chuckled and I shot him a curious glance.

"Mello!" Roger called, coming down the hallway behind us. "You know better than to raise your voice like that. You've just earned yourself another detention young man," Roger pointed a long, bony finger down the hall he had just appeared from and Mello proceeded to march down it furiously.

"I don't get it, what happened?"

"Let's go take a look shall we?" We walked back to the front of the line and joined Near. Sure enough Near's paper was ahead of all the other's. Mello's and Matt's came right after his respectively. I stared astonished at Near's sheet; it read '100%'. He'd already finished everything already? AND gotten a perfect score? I felt like quoting Mello, 'the hell?'

"Jewel," I turned to see Roger standing over me, "you'd do well to follow your brother's example." I tried not to sneer at him; I'd heard that one before. I bit my lip to keep from a loud outburst of my own. I was never allowed to be my own person; I had to be my brother. Roger stared down at me for another moment before he left after Mello.

"What did Roger mean, 'another' detention?" I asked.

"Didn't you hear? Mello got hauled off to detention earlier too."

"For what?"

"Fighting," Matt said a little too suspiciously. I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before but Matt had a tiny purple bruise starting to show on his jaw.

"You were fighting too! What happened?" I asked worriedly.

"Ach, its no big deal.

"Hey wait a minute," I said as realisation came to me, "you've been with me all afternoon. You didn't get a detention."

"Mello took the rap for it, he always does." How could Matt let Mello take all the blame for something like that? I think Matt saw the distaste in my expression because he continued, "He insisted. He's really strong headed like that."

"What were you guys fighting for?"

"For the noblest reason of all, my dear Gem," Matt expressed mischievously. I arched my eyebrow at him. "Red and his goons shouldn't be bothering you any time soon," Matt clarified.

"You didn't!"

"Oh but we did."

I was horrified.

"But, but, but..." I stuttered.

"Listen, don't worry about it. Mello's always looking for a reason to pick a fight ha-ha. He's fine."

I wasn't convinced.

* * *

><p>I just couldn't concentrate at all. There were far too many things bouncing around my head. The most prominent, I hated to admit, was Mello. He appeared to be so cold to me when Near and I had first arrived, but then today... He'd gotten himself in trouble for me, twice. And he seemed to really understand how I felt when we'd been sitting back in the garden. Mello... there was something about him.<p>

I took a chance and got up from my desk. I crept to my door, and from my door, I crept down the hallway; relieved when I saw that there was still light spilling into the hallway from Matt's and Mello's room.

I knocked ever so quietly I wasn't sure if anyone would've even heard me, but not a moment later Matt appeared on the other side of a recently opened door.

"What're you doing here?" he whispered.

"Is it a bad time?"

"N-not r-really," Matt said, turning his head back into the room. "Mello's asleep though."

Perfect.

"Matt, tell me something."

"What?"

"What's Mello's story?"

"Mello's story? Heh..."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I always think of this as like, the critical moment in which Mello's hatred for Near manifests itself. Mello is no longer first.

So, as some of you may have noticed, some of the information presented in my first FanFic contradicts some of the information presented in this FanFic... Please don't hate, just go with it :)

And so begins another week of work. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I finally got a job, but I still just wish money grew on trees ;P


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: **Let's see: if there's a family reunion every two years, and each of the six brothers take a turn, then the next family reunion I won't be invited to will be in 12 years... interesting. Not that I'm invited to any of them, but that's beside the point. I feel like the black sheep in my family. It's not the case, but it might as well be.

And on that bright and cheery note ^_^

Man, this chapter took far longer to finish this chapter than I thought it would. Especially since I started working on it the second I uploaded the other one. I guess that's what a week of work'll do to a person, LOL.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p>*Mello's POV*<p>

There was a knock so quiet I wasn't even sure as to whether or not I dreamed it until Matt got up from his game to answer the door.

"What're you doing here?" I heard Matt whisper.

"Is it a bad time?" it was Jewel. What was she doing up this late? More, what was she doing at our door this late?

"N-not r-really," Matt said, "Mello's asleep though." No, I was awake, but it wasn't as though I was going to contradict him.

"Matt, tell me something."

"What?"

"What's Mello's story?" My Story? What does she want to know my story for?

"Mello's story? Heh..." I heard Matt respond.

This ought to be interesting. I decided it wouldn't hurt me too much to stay up a little longer.

*End Mello POV*

"Well, you can come on in, but there's not a whole lot to tell," Matt whispered. He stepped aside and let me into their room. I caught a glimpse of Mello lying under this covers, his eyes were closed be he seemed to not be sleeping too peacefully, he looked a little tense. I wrote it off as his difficult day though and joined Matt on his bed.

"Mello was already here when I showed up. I think he was one of the first actually... well the first of the fourth. You, me, your brother, Mello, we're all fourth generation around here. Like Pokémon," he chuckled quietly. "Mello has really kept to himself as long as I've known him. I did some hacking into the computer system not too long after I arrived and found out that Mello's parents never actually died, they just kind of left him here."

Matt's tone had fallen on the last bit of information he gave me, and I couldn't keep my heart from doing the same. Mello's parents had just, left him?

"Why?" I asked, unable to disguise the sorrow in my voice.

Matt shrugged, "Who knows." I nodded solemnly. "Mello doesn't really like to talk about it, so I don't know a whole lot myself. Sorry."

"Thanks Matt, its fine."

I left without saying another word and snuck back to my room. I felt absolutely sick. It was one thing in my opinion to lose your loving parents; it was another thing all together to have your parents just drop you off at some orphanage. Here I'd been ranting to Mello this afternoon about how my life wasn't fair; I had nothing to complain about.

* * *

><p>Saturday morning I realised that I hadn't gotten a chance to check where I was with my grades. After racing down the stairs and through the hallways to the wall with all the marks posted, I decided to feign illness so I could dwell in myself pity alone in my room. Last place I'm sure was something one was allowed to feel self-pity for. Knowing that 'I had nothing to complain about' as per my discussion with Matt the night before didn't really help the situation; and by the afternoon I was so far into my own little bitter world, I was sure that I actually was coming down with something. It was just 'one of those days' I kept telling myself, but that didn't exactly make it better either. I was depressed about my parents, I was depressed about this school, I was depressed about the scumbags who had all but assaulted me the other day, for some reason I was depressed about Matt, and I was definitely depressed about Mello... I needed to get a life.<p>

"You know you're not going to do yourself any good by staying in bed all day."

That's funny, I thought for sure my door had been closed. I rolled over from starring out my window and found Mello in my open doorway holding a tray of tea. I sat up and arched my eyebrow; he was not who I was expecting. I mean, I wasn't expecting anyone per say, but Matt was much more likely to show up than Mello was... ANYONE seemed much more likely to show up than Mello was.

"What're you...?"

"Don't get excited, Matt sent me up. Said he'd do it himself but he was busy or something." Mello rolled his eyes.

"Well thanks, I still really appreciate it," I tried a half-smile on for size and found that it fit quite nicely.

I sensed Mello was about to leave and for some reason the thought of that happening was quite unappealing. "Want to join me?"

"There's only one cup."

I bit my lip; C'mon J-Jewel, think, you're smarter than that. "Justa sec," I flung half my body off the side of the bed and pulled my suitcase from under the mattresses. I unzipped my bag and fished around in the odds and ends I had no desire to unpack. After a second I pulled out a coffee mug, one that had belonged to my parents. "You can use this," I said sitting up and giving myself a head rush after having been bent over for so long.

Mello shrugged like it didn't matter to him either way and took a seat on the foot of my bed.

"So what's up?" I asked him as I poured the tea. He shrugged and pulled out a chocolate bar. Chocolate and tea didn't sound too appealing to me, but he did wave off the steaming mug when I passed it to him. "Do you like music?"

"Doesn't everybody?"

"Do you like games?"

"Matt's the gamer around here."

This wasn't going to be any fun if he was going to give me such difficult answers. I wanted to know about him, I wanted to figure him out.

"So what do you want to do when you get out of here?"

He looked at me like I'd just asked him if the moon was in outer space. "The same thing everybody here wants to do when they're old enough," he answered.

"And what's that?"

"You mean, they didn't tell you?" I shook my head no. "We're all here for training to one day become the next L."

L? So then that had been thee L I'd met that day. That explained why the tests they'd given Near and I had been so focused on critical thinking and deductive abilities; that explained why we had a class called Analytical Reasoning. I mentally slapped myself for not having put it all together before.

"L's the greatest," Mello said suddenly, pulling me from my inner musings. "To be the next L, to surpass L, that's what we're all here for." He didn't have to say it; he didn't have to specify that 'that's why I'm here.'

I watched Mello for a moment, and for the first time I saw something more than just coolness in his eyes. I saw admiration, and determination. I saw hope and faith and...

"Aiii!" I cried as the teacup slipped out of my hand. It went clattering to the ground, but not before spilling its piping hot, liquid contents all over my hand.

"Man, you're a klutz," Mello took my wrist and led me into the hall and towards the washrooms.

"H-h-hey that's the girl's w-washroom," I stuttered as I gave a poor attempt to keep from crying.

"Yeah, well I'm not taking you into the men's."

"B-but..." he dragged me in and pulled me over to the sinks. Mello started the cold water running and stuck my hand under the faucet. "Y-you're not supposed to u-use r-running water," I stated. No running water, and no ice water; Burns 101. Although I have to admit it felt quite nice. I sighed as the sting from the burn slowly subsided.

"You're not burned that badly, it'll be fine," but I didn't hear him. I was already loss in the bliss that was the absence of my burn; the absence of my burn, and the presence of Mello's hand. Without thinking I leaned my head against his shoulder and sighed again.

"OH!" a surprised gasp came from the door. "Uh...?" It was a blonde haired girl, one that I had a couple classes with. What did they say her name was? Caitlin? "I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"It's fine," Mello said for me, she just burned her hand."

"Oh," she looked at me with disdain in her eyes. "You poor thing," for some reason I sensed she was not sincere. Her cold, emerald eyes were burning a hole through my soul.

"C'mon Jewel, that ought to be enough." He removed my hand from the water and waited a moment to see if the pain would return.

I nodded, "Yeah, it feels alright, thanks."

Mello led me back towards the door, and as we passed Caitlin I might've imagined it, but I felt a terrible, menacing energy coming from her.

"There are you okay?" Mello asked as he sat me back on me bed.

"Yeah, thanks." I bent down and picked up the porcelain cup that had somehow managed to escape the crash without a single crack. I placed it back on the tray, and Mello picked it up to leave. "Oh, Mello," he paused in my doorway without turning around. "Would you like to play a game of chess with me?"

"Some other time." I bit my lip and pulled out a stick of bubblegum as Mello closed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>It was another restless night for me. It seemed like it was getting harder and harder to adjust to this place instead of easier and easier... which logic dictated, shouldn't have been the case. I decided on another midnight walk because it had worked so well last time.<p>

I stalked through the empty, echoing hallways trying to keep my footfalls as silent as I could. The presence of only the dim moonlight made the already darkly stained wood appear black. I wandered around some more before I found myself back in the library hallway; where the library light was once again burning.

I half wondered if it didn't stay on all the time, or whether someone kept forgetting to turn it off. Surely no one would be working this late at night. I skulked over to the door and peaked in.

"Have you been studying this late every night?" I asked a little too loudly for the middle of the night, when I realised who it was in the room.

"Not last night," Mello responded sarcastically.

"Oh my... Mello!" I was appalled, "That's not healthy." It was well past midnight. Things were making sense now though. Mello and I had four morning classes together; he'd fallen asleep in almost every one of them this week. "Why? You have to sleep you know!"

"What I HAVE to do, is make sure I'm good enough!" he continued to furiously scribble in the notebooks in front of him.

"Good enough! Mello, you're going to make yourself sick." I recalled the number of times that I myself had stayed up late, cramming for exams, or perfecting papers. After nine hours of sleep over three days, I had been all but bedridden for two days, and had felt the continuing effects for the following week.

"Yes 'good enough'!" Mello whispered harshly. "I wasn't good enough for my parents, and now I'm not good enough here either!" His words tore little cuts into my heart. I knew what it felt like to not feel like you were adequate, to not feel like you were 'good enough'.

"Mello..." I whispered.

"I worked so hard to come out on top, I study all the time, and then your stupid brother wasn't even here for a week and he passed me," the rage and frustration Mello was feeling were all but tangible.

"I'm sorry," I didn't know what else I could possibly say in this situation. How was I supposed to tell him that I thought he was good enough? I went to lay my hand on his arm but he recoiled violently at my touch; making me feel even worse.

I hung my head in defeat.

"It's not like you can be better than everyone," I whispered quietly, afraid to provoke another outburst.

"Fine, I'll settle for being better than Near then." That wasn't exactly what I had meant. "Now if you don't mind," it was implied in his tone that he wanted me to leave.

I took the scenic route as I sulked silently back up to my room; I wasn't just ready to try and sleep yet. As fate would have it, however, I did end up back at my door before too long. I nudged open the great, wooden divide and flipped on my light. I couldn't help but gasp at what met me when I stared in.

I covered my mouth to prevent the scream that I knew was brewing. I didn't even think I should find it scary, but for some reason I did. I felt so violated, so cut down. On every available inch of wall space, floor space, and desk space, where hundreds, probably thousands, of pennies.

"What is it?" Mello asked, coming up the stairs.

I couldn't find any words so instead I just pointed as he appeared behind me.

Mello didn't say anything at first, then he sighed and came out with, "You should tell Roger. Right away, it'd be best to clear this up now."

"No, I can't tell Roger now! How do I explain that I wasn't in my room at this time of night? We're not supposed to go wandering around after 'Light's Out'," ...According to the neatly organized booklet that Roger had handed me the first night.

"You went to the washroom," Mello suggested.

"It took longer than it would take me in the washroom to do something like this," I asserted.

"Well tell him after breakfast or something."

I hung my head and gave a small, weak nod.

"What now?" Mello asked exasperatedly.

"I... I don't want to sleep in there when its like that." It may've been childish, but I was allowed to be childish; I was still a child after all.

Mello gave a frustrated growl, "C'mon then."

'C'mon'? I followed him as he led me towards his and Matt's room.

* * *

><p>I woke up surprisingly early for a Sunday morning, (especially one after which I had spent the night on the floor... Mello wasn't THAT much of a gentleman I discovered.) I suppose I had myself so nerved out the whole night, what with being in a new room, much less a boy's room. Speaking of which, I noticed they were both still asleep. This was the perfect opportunity to slip back into my own room; which I did silently. I didn't want to be there, but it was favourable to having to explain to Matt or anyone else who might happen by why I was in their room.<p>

I got dressed and went down for breakfast just before my alarm went off. I sat with Near at a table and wasn't surprised when neither Matt nor Mello joined us. No, I wasn't surprised, but maybe I was just a bit disappointed. After we ate I went back to my room, and then ran back down to Roger's office as though it was the first time I was seeing the grotesque mess in my room.

I was told to spend the day out of my room, as a crew would be brought in to remove the pennies and retouch the room. I decided I'd see what Matt was up to these days; but when I entered his room I knew he couldn't be up to anything good.

"I know why I'm bummed, why do you look so bummed?" I asked, Matt just sighed in response.

"Social experiment failure." Was is pathetic that Matt's downcast demeanour was the second thing I noticed? Second to the fact that Mello was once again MIA.

"Failure?" I still didn't know what this 'experiment' of his was, but maybe I could help him along, even if I couldn't help myself... "So do what all the great minds do," I smiled.

"And what's that?"

"The Scientific Method. Go back to your hypothesis and try again. Or maybe just edit your experimental design," I winked at him.

Matt chucked, softly at first but his laugh was back to its normal volume level before he ran out of breath. "Nice. So why're you bummed then?"

Why wasn't I bummed? I compiled a mental checklist and read it off to him. The top of this list consisted of course of my parents and situation... which I was sure one day I would be able to get over. Next came my grades; I continently skipped over Mello, which for whatever reason was one of the causes as to why I was bummed. I'd figure out why one day. It was the penny issue that concluded my list.

Matt nodded for a second and then said, "You know, it's not like pennies are altogether worthless."

"It cost more to make them than they're worth." Just like me, I mused. Everybody put so much work into me, all my teachers, my parents, and in the end, I still ended up worthless. Hell, I could do the math. It was the one thing I was good at.

"Sure, but suppose you've got ten thousand pennies. That's a hundred dollars." When I didn't say anything he continued, "All those so-called 'worthless' pennies they scrapped out of your room, there was for sure over a hundred dollars worth."

"That's all fine, but there's only one of me."

"Yeah, but you're not a penny, you're a jewel."

"Heh, thanks Matt," I managed a weak smile, but a smile none the less.

"No problem Gem." That reminded me...

"Oh, and thanks for sending Mello up with that tea the other day, it was quite refreshing."

Matt gave me a quizzical look, "I didn't send up any tea."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>And today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D

What is everybody's favourite Pokémon and why? My favourite is Ninetales Always has been, always will be ^_^ Fire type are my favourite, and foxes are my favourite animals. I also love dark type and dogs, so of course I love Arcanine and Houndoom 3 Flying types are also pretty awesome ;D

Also, I am aware that Wammy's is in England. I am also aware that they use different currency in England. They use pounds instead of dollars... but dollars fit the story, in my opinion are easier to work with ^_^

And hey guys, great news! I just got an awesome idea for the next chapter :D Woot!


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Oh the irony. Guess who actually got burned today? I think I'm becoming a little too much like my OC ha-ha. I was taking some ribs out of the oven for my family (because of course the only vegetarian in the family is in charge of the meat for some reason,) and wouldn't you know it, across all four of my fingers I have a nice red line now. One finger is already starting to blister... lovely.

Thanks again for all the awesome reviews by the way ^_^ Sweet picks on the Pokémon ;P

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p>Well, one of them was lying; either Matt told Mello to bring me tea, or he didn't. But I couldn't worry about that right now; I had a test to take.<p>

Cultural Studies.

Apparently being able to tell Monet and Manet apart wasn't good enough for them. The test itself wasn't terribly hard, just memorization for the most part but it wasn't as though I didn't have more important things to worry about.

I finished the test in record time even for me, and left early to wander around the building. I had another half hour before I had to be in my next class.

The hallways were so deserted on account of everyone still being in their classes that even my sneakers were making a bit of a racket and echoing off the high walls.

I turned a corner and it turned out that the hallways weren't as deserted as I thought they were. A bare leg tripped me and sent my books flying.

"Hey you," I looked up to find three girls staring down at me. You've got to be kidding me.

"Something I can do for you ladies?" I asked sarcastically, picking up my books and standing up.

"Yeah, you can stay away from Mello," said the blonde one in front; someone was sure touchy. It was the girl from the washroom the other day when I'd burned my hand. Taking a closer look at her now I noticed she was probably the same height as Mello, she had bleached blonde hair and was already well endowed for someone her age. She had hot pink nail polish on her fingers but that was hardly the first thing anyone would noticed when they looked at her; her skirt was just a little too short.

"Uh, yeah, no. I'm not going to do that. Sorry. As it is, I'm not really sorry, but it's the social convention to apologise," I shrugged casually at, what was her name? Caitlin?

"Little bitch!"

The slap she hit me with wasn't terribly forceful, but because I hadn't been expecting it, I was knocked off my feet. After bracing my fall I brought my hand up to the stinging skin on my face; that, for sure, had left a mark.

"Buzz off, you're such a poser," I said as I stood up and dusted myself off. Only a poser would need to bring her two friends along to watch, and to help in case she couldn't handle me herself.

I attempted to pass her and she made a move to shove me. Big mistake. Before she could have realised what happened, I grabbed her hands and crossed her arms in front of her chest. With my left foot I knocked both her feet out from under her and let her fall on her butt. "I said buzz off." Girls just didn't intimidate me like guys did.

"Stay away from him!" she shouted from the floor. Her two friends made a weak attempt to help her up.

"Nope," I responded casually. It wasn't that I particularly wanted to be around Mello, it was just the principle of the thing... right? I picked up my books for a second time and continued on to my next class.

* * *

><p>I spent the rest of the night finishing up the remainder of the worksheets Roger had given me in the beginning. It had taken a lot less time than I'd calculated to finish them and I was ready to head off to dream land.<p>

There was just one little problem; I couldn't sleep.

This is beginning to become a habit with me, I thought to myself as I threw the covers back and slipped out of bed. The extra fabric from my pyjama bottoms hit the floor and my shirt naturally slid off my shoulder as I tiptoed out my door and down the halls.

I told myself that I was just going for a walk, I told myself that I had no particular destination in mind, but somehow, more quickly than usual, I ended up outside of the library door; the library door with a stream of yellow light spilling into the hallway.

I took the liberty of letting myself in without knocking.

"Hey," I smiled. "What's up?"

"Why do you ask such dumb questions? As if you don't know what I'm doing," he said exasperatedly, motioning to the papers and textbooks in front of him.

"You know, it was a rhetorical question okay? People use them to break the ice? It sounds nicer than walking in and saying something like, 'You study too much.'"

"You can never study too much."

"Uh, yeah, that's not really my point."

Mello grumbled in frustration, "What're you doing here?"

What was I doing here? Think fast Jewel... "I wanted to thank you for letting me stay in your room the other night."

"I didn't do that for you."

"Oh no?" I asked indifferently, "You must've done it for the Easter Bunny then right?"

"It's not like I care either way, you just probably wouldn't have left me alone if I hadn't helped you out."

"Oh," I said as it hit me like a ton of bricks. "I get it," my tone softened. "You're TRYING to push people away from you; you don't want to get hurt again." Mello didn't say anything so I continued, "You know, I read somewhere that you can only be hurt by people you care about. If you don't care about anybody, you can't be hurt; is that it?"

"You're way off base."

"Am I? I know you're hurting; that you're angry. You finally had something you thought you could be proud of, and you feel like Near took that away from you," I paused to let that sink in. "But Mello," I lightly placed my hand in his arm and was incessantly relieved when he didn't pull away, "you have so much to be proud for."

"Like what? You don't know anything about me," he said angrily.

"And why do you think that is?" Mello's lip subtly curled back in a half snarl. "You won't let anyone get close to you. And, and I know it's because you were hurt," I said, recalling what Matt told me about his parents, "but not everybody's like that. Not everybody's going to hurt you." I smiled hopefully, "You have to take a chance on some people; some people are worth that chance."

* * *

><p>Before anyone knew it, the weather had grown colder and colder and snow had begun to fall outside. It wasn't any sort of a surprise though; we were almost on the later side of December by now.<p>

"Gem!" Matt called from my doorway one afternoon, "come downstairs, we're throwing Mello a birthday party."

"But, his birthday isn't until tomorrow," and I instantly wished I hadn't said anything. I wasn't supposed to know that yet; technically no one had told me. After talking with Matt about Mello's past, and after having talked with Mello himself, I'd become curious. I did some computer hacking of my own into Mello's files. There wasn't much there Matt hadn't told me already; Mello was a prodigy, his parents had left him. Mello was two years older than I was and after checking him out, I'd found out that Matt was too. Matt's past was a total mystery; he'd just shown up at the gate one day, he had shown a great academic promise so they let him stay.

"Doesn't matter. Will you get him down to the lounge? I've still got a couple more things to do."

"But Matt..."

"That's great thanks, give me ten minutes."

"But Matt..."

"The lounge in the west wing, don't forget, ten minutes, thanks."

"But Matt..." it was useless; he'd already disappeared down the hall. "Good grief," I muttered to no one but myself and walked down the hall to Mello and Matt's room.

* * *

><p>"I'm not going Matt," Mello called through the door after I knocked.<p>

"Why not?" I asked, pushing the door open.

"Oh, it's you."

It took a little bit of coaxing but I finally convinced Mello to come downstairs with me. When I made a move for the west hallway however, Mello grabbed my hand and pulled me into the adjacent corridor.

"What're you doing?"

"Avoiding a loud, uncomfortable social convention."

Mello tugged my arm again and pushed me through a pair of double doors.

The room was a good twenty-five degrees, but I froze solid when I saw the source of the heat. In the center of the far wall was a fireplace; a lit fireplace.

"_Mommy, Daddy!" I called as the fire licked at the bottom of our closed door._

"_Get out! Get out of the house!" I could barely hear my father's call above the crackling and splintering of the wood._

_Smoke billowed in above my brother's and my heads and on the other side of the house I heard glass shatter._

"_Mommy! Daddy!" I called again, but this time received no answer. "MOM! DAD!" still no answer._

_The smoke was getting thicker in the room and the flames were working their way up the door and walls. I stole a glance at my brother; he was sitting under my window with a handful of toys in his hands. His white pyjamas and silver hair were covered in ashes and soot and I had to imagine that my hair and clothes looked the same._

_The two of us were starting to cough as I crawled over the window. I grabbed a blanket off of my bad and draped it over the two of us as I prepared to open the window. If I wasn't careful the crosscurrent that would be created by opening the window would cause an even greater flare-up of the flames._

_I slip the window up and was grateful when the room wasn't immediately engulfed in flames. "C'mon, let's go!"_

Miraculously we'd both managed to make it safely onto the roof and from the roof onto the ground. That didn't change the fact however, that I was now indisputably terrified of fire.

"You alright?"

I shook my head but answered, "I'm fine."

"Yeah, as fine as a snowball in hell," funny he should put it that way.

"It's no big deal, really." I really didn't want to get into it, and yet, for some reason I did.

The school had made a point to ask Near and I whether we wanted counselling. We both declined, not wanting to share our problems with total strangers; and yet, for some reason, I wanted to share my problem with Mello. I wanted for once to not have to pretend like nothing affected me, I wanted for once to share my feelings with someone.

"Well fi..."

"Mello," I interrupted, before he could finish and change the subject. I turned my stare away from the fire and into Mello's blazing blue eyes, "I... I'm afraid of fire."

He just stared at me for a second, as though he wasn't sure how to reply to something like that; I know I would be at a loss for words myself, even considering my extensive vocabulary. Mello looked to the fire and then back to me; I hung my head, I shouldn't have said anything.

Suddenly my gaze was shifted back as Mello took my chin in his hand and forced me to look up at him.

"Listen, its fine. I wouldn't let anything happen to you if there was a fire alright." His tone was cold but earnest, and maybe, maybe there was something else hidden there too.

I had no idea what to say, especially when Mello and I started leaning in towards each other. He was like gravity, pulling me in.

What was happening? Was I ready for this? Were we really going to...

"HEY!" someone shouted angrily from behind me. There was suddenly a great force shoving me to the side, my left side, the side the fireplace was on.

"Hey what're you doing?" I heard Mello ask as I felt the weight of another person on top of me.

I wouldn't look to see who it was though; I couldn't. All I could focus on was the fact that my face had come within an inch of the fire screen. My braids whipped into the screen and charcoal dust flew all over the place.

Whatever happened in the next couple of minutes was totally lost on me. I couldn't take my eyes off of the fire, but before I knew it I was being hauled to my feet. "Hey, hey," Mello's tugging on my arm brought me back to the present. I gazed at him for a moment as I tried to regulate my breathing; then I took a chance and stole a glance at my attacker. It was Caitlin.

The three of us faced off for a moment, and then...

"Hey, there you guys are. What're you doing in this lounge? I said we were all in the lounge in the west wing. They're all about to start... Did, I interrupt something?" Matt said, finally cluing in.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Getting ready for another week of work. This schedule is so intense. I have so much to get done before I start this week too... Hmm. Sorry for such a late AND short chapter too. Usually I try to keep it to one or the other, not both. Don't fret though! I've got some really intense action planned for the next chapter ;P You'll like it ;P

Oh so hey, question: Do you think it's un-cool of me to not have told my friends about my stories? I was talking to one friend in particular last night, and she got in such a fuss because I never told her about my story. For starters, she wouldn't be interested in this story she doesn't like anime, she's into girls, so a boy x girl love story would not appeal to her. And of course my main point was that it's harder to take rejection from friends than randoms. Don't get me wrong, I totally care about what all of you think about it, it's just different right. Now, she said she'd love it just because it was mine, but that's EXACTLY what I'm trying to avoid. I don't want her to say she likes it just because she's my friend. I can't stand being patronized like that. So, un-cool? Or rational?


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **I really want to thank my readers for the awesome reviews they give me ^_^ You all inspire me so much to continue writing and to do my best at it.

YOU ROCK!

...But I PAPER!

I win ^_^

Ha-ha I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I read that somewhere and just had to try it out ;P

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>Sunday December 24, 2006<strong>

The temperature the past week had dipped, and stayed below zero; it was lucky that Wammy's House had such an extensive heating system. The mercury in the thermometers wasn't the only thing that had dropped either; with the lower temperatures came lower temperaments. After the incident involving the fireplace (which shall never be brought up again,) everyone pretty much seemed to go their own separate ways.

Classes had been ended a little less than a week ago and so now the days were spent frolicking in the fresh powder that seemed to fall on the premises every night. Near and I had both caught up on our work and so even though we were both more than free to go outside, Near spent almost all of his time indoors. It was today that I was finally able to talk him into going outside with Matt, Mello and I.

"Hey, marks were posted yesterday, the new ones from our last week of classes," Matt brought up. Because we hadn't had classes in a little while and because Christmas wasn't even a day away, no one's thoughts were with the grades anymore. We were all just enjoying our vacation. Well, I was enjoying my vacation, Near was stoic, Mello was temperamental as usual and Matt... Matt was just Matt.

Near, Mello and Matt stopped at the beginning of the grade sheets as I worked my way towards the middle. Surely I wasn't last anymore, I had completed all my work before the final grades were submitted, so surely that would've given me some credit.

"Hey, where're you off to? You're up here with us," Matt called, surprising me. I was at the front of the line? With them? Talk about unexpected.

I turned on my heels and started to make my way back. Sure enough not only was I not last, I was in fifth place. I was right behind a girl named Linda, who was right behind Matt. The situation with Mello and Near hadn't changed, Near was still first I noted and felt quite poorly for some reason. I knew Mello worked so hard each and every night, studying, writing, reading, and for what, to come in second to a kid two years his junior who didn't even try?

"Going outside," Mello announced, the frustration dripping like venom from his voice.

Matt heaved a sigh and followed him towards the door. I went in step behind them, and Near came after me, our heavy winter boots clomping on the wooden floors. We made it outside and worked our way through groups of kids building snowmen and snow angels, snow forts and kids who were using said forts for snowball fights.

With Mello leading we managed to make it away from all of the rambunctious kids and back towards the end of Wammy's House property. The estate was huge, and nestled in a far corner of the acreage was a tiny river.

A tiny river, or a large stream; it was maybe twenty feet across (assuming that was something I could guess accurately just by eyeballing it.) Rodger was very touchy about the length of water though, saying that although it wasn't terribly wide, that it ran quite deep and us kids ought to stay away from it. A small foot bridge had been constructed over the water, and that's where the four of us ended up.

We stood in an uncomfortable silence for a while before Matt finally said, "Hey, Mello..."

"Just never mind Matt," Mello snapped back.

"Mello," I tried in a quiet tone, "are you alright?"

"You've really got a knack for asking stupid questions."

"You've really got a knack for being mean," I shot. "This isn't Matt's fault and it's not my fault either. You don't have to be rude, that's not fair."

"You want to know what's not fair? It's not fair that I'm losing out to this little sheep," he pointed at none other than Near, "...this cloning experiment gone wrong. You're both nuts."

In the first moment I was hurt beyond my wildest imaginations and in the second I was just plain furious. "How dare you say such things!" I shouted.

"How dare I?" It took less than a second before he turned on Near, "How dare you." And that was it; Mello gave Near one hard shove. What happened next was strictly chaotic.

In the Chaos Theory there was this lovely little component called 'The Butterfly Effect.' Long story short it basically states that one little change of action at point A, can cause a huge ripple effect by the time a series reaches point B; leading to a whole different outcome. The change at point A itself isn't big enough to create the different outcome, but by compounding the events resulting from the change whole new scenarios can arise.

That's exactly what happened.

Mello shoving Near wasn't enough to send Near over the edge of the railing on the bridge, but when Near stepped back onto a patch of ice he gained momentum instead of slowing down.

I didn't even have a split second to think, there wasn't that much time. Instinctively I reached out and grabbed Near's hand; but it was already too late. Near's momentum coupled with my forward motion lead to enough force to send us both over the guard.

Somehow I managed to hit the water first; or rather, the ice. All the cold this past week had left a not too thin layer of ice on top of the water. I know, because I felt the back of my head smash into it first; a shocking white light flashed in front of my eyes when I hit and then instantly disappeared.

Near and I were quickly carried downstream by the bitingly frigid water. It forced the air from my lungs and caused every muscle in my body to seize and contract. My skin started stinging immediately as hundreds of thousands of tiny needles pierced my skin over and over. I wanted to scream, I wanted so desperately to cry, but more I wanted to survive.

My right hand had a tight grip on Near's coat and my left had I had pressing on the bottom of the layer of ice above our heads, waiting for an opening. Suddenly the ice gave way under the pressure of my hand and I broke through to the surface. Near and I continued down another foot before I was able to get a firm hold on the ice. I knew I had to make this fast before the cold REALLY got to me.

I fought hard against the current to hoist myself and my brother out of the freezing water. I forced myself up and stole a lungful of air in case I was forced under again. My body started to tremor violently because of the cold and I was afraid my teeth might chatter themselves out of my head.

I tried to scream, I wanted to, but I couldn't; I wasn't even sure if I could breathe.

"GEM! NEAR!"

"Jewel!"

I heard words but they meant nothing to me, I heard sounds but they were indistinguishable.

Cold. Cold. Cold. Cold... It was all I could think and inside a second I couldn't even think that anymore. My whole body was stiffening; in another moment I wouldn't be able to move.

Something clicked then and I went into overdrive. One last burst of adrenaline to last me until I could save my life and the life of my brother. I hoped that would be enough. I had to make this fast.

I had to get Near out first; that was obvious. He hadn't had any air yet and I couldn't get out while hanging onto him. With every ounce of strength I could call on, I braced myself against the ice and plunged my left hand back into the water.

"Jewel!"

"Gem! Near!"

"What's going on?"

"Go get help! NOW!" The voices I was hearing seemed to be getting further and further into the distance; but I couldn't worry about that now.

I got both hands locked onto Nears coat and pulled with all my might, desperate to not lose my hold on him, and desperate to not lose my balance against the ice; the current was still trying to force me back under the ice into a watery grave.

Miraculously I managed to haul him up out of the water without us both plunging back in.

"N-Near!" I stuttered, "N-Near!" He wasn't breathing. "Nate!" I gave him one quick punch in the center of his back and heaved a sigh of relief when I heard him start to choke and cough. If he was choking and coughing, he was breathing. My arms were REALLY starting to hurt but I had to get him out of the water. I don't know where I got the strength but in one swift movement I had him lying on the ice in front of me. I heard him breathing but his breaths were long and shallow; I suspected he was already unconscious. I would have to get him to shore myself.

"Gem!"

"I-I-I'm g-g-going t-t-to..." my body just wouldn't stop shaking and I knew that was a bad sign, "i-i-is th-th-there a-a-a g-g-gap in the i-i-ice?" I shouted as loud as I could.

"No, why?"

"I-I'm g-going t-t-to s-s-slide h-him t-t-to y-you." Without waiting for a response I latched onto Near's coat again, swung him back, and then forward like a windup for a baseball pitch.

"Got him!" Thank God.

"G-g-go!" I shouted. Near would be safe now. My brother would be safe.

"Jewel!"

I rested my head and arms on the ice as the tremors in my body slowed to brief spasms.

"Jewel!"

What? What do you want? Just leave me alone for a second. I'm so tired.

"Jewel!"

Stop shouting please, I just want to rest my eyes, I'm so tired.

"Jewel!"

The quaking in my body stopped and the cold started to go away. I wasn't cold anymore; I was going to be fine. I just needed a quick little nap.

There was something so wrong with that logic; deep in my unconscious I knew that, but I was so tired I just didn't care. I decided I would take that nap.

* * *

><p>I woke up to a very, very annoying bleeping coming from somewhere to my left and right near my ear. My skin and muscles were quite sore and felt quite cool to me, even though I could feel heat radiating to me from what I assumed was a blanket. I let out a groan of annoyance, I was so incredibly uncomfortable. I tried turning over, but there seemed to be some sort of restraints to keep me in place. I wanted to open my eyes to see where I was and what was going on but my eye lids were still so heavy and I was still quite exhausted. I groaned again at my inability to get comfortable.<p>

"Jewel?" I heard someone in the room whisper.

'Jewel'? Was that my name? It seemed right, but I knew there was something wrong about it. I was so confused... and why was someone in my room?

I groaned again in response, I couldn't seem to make my mouth work... or my brain for that matter.

"Jewel, are you awake? Are you alright?"

Am I alright? Why wouldn't I be alright? What was going on? I tried again to open my eyes, but it just wasn't going to happen. "W-what's going on?" I finally managed.

"Hold on a second, don't go back to sleep, let me call the nurse?"

'The nurse'? Where was I? And why were people still trying to keep me awake? I began to recall wanting to sleep; wanting to sleep but someone was shouting at me.

I tried to put it all together: Nurses, bleeping, 'restraints', heated blankets, uncomfortable-ness... I inhaled deeply through my nose and processed the smells I took in. Chemicals, cleaning chemicals. There was bleach and I smelled plastics too, a lot of plastic, rubber and latex.

I was in a hospital. I batted my eyelids and with my unfocused eyes I managed to make out that the 'restraints' which were keeping me from turning over were tubes and wires. I let my eyelids droop back down as I thought about all the monitors and bags of saline solution and God knows what else I was hooked up to. Such was the way of the hospital.

Why was I in a hospital though? What was wrong with me? I wracked my brain and the last thing I could come up with was sitting in front of a fire place with Mello. Two weeks prior Mello had promised to me that he would not let any fire harm me, and since that night I seemed to no longer be afraid of the flickering flames... while Mello was with me at least.

Surely that was not the problem though, so what was? I pushed my memory forward in time, and the struggle I was having in trying to remember reminded me if the scratchy VHS tapes that my parents insisted on watching with my brother and I.

...My parents, they were gone, weren't they? As hard as I could, I could not come up with a recent memory of them. I half wondered if I was sad about that, if I was sad that they were gone. I knew that they were, I felt it.

"She's awake I swear, she was talking..." the voice interrupted.

"Jewel? Jewel honey are you awake?"

"Didn't you just hear that I was?" I asked, I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice but it just flowed out. Why did people have to doubt kids all the time? At least, I assumed the voice was that of a child's, it sounded like it was. It sounded familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place it, not yet.

I yawned tiredly as I felt cold, hard hands start to push and prod me all over like I was a head of livestock. "What do you want? Can I go back to sleep now, I'm still so tired," I yawned again.

"How do you feel dear?" Yup, she had to be a nurse, nurses always ignored me.

"I feel TIRED," I said, overemphasising that word. Hadn't I just told her that?

"I mean otherwise," she sounded as annoyed as I was.

"I feel stiff and sore and moderately chilled. Can I go to sleep Now?" I shuddered lightly making my bones and muscles ache with the movement.

"Hun, you had a severe case of hypothermia, do you remember what happened?"

Hypothermia? Really? What had happened?

"N-no? I don't think I do," I was quite unsure of a lot of things at the moment. I searched my brain for all the information I had on hypothermia to compare the symptoms with what I felt. As far as I could tell they did seem to match up. Well what do you know, I had hypothermia, now how did I get it?

"You fell into a river dear, your friend here fished you out. Do you remember that?"

"W-who 'fished' me out?" I don't think the nurse had intended on that bad pun at a time like this.

"It's Mello," the voice said.

"Mello?" I was instantly at ease and I didn't know why. I instantly felt safer and more at peace... and then I started to remember what happened.

"Oh, I remember now," I said quietly. Every memory I had from the past month or so came back to me, the fire, Wammy's, Near... "OH! Near!" I almost shouted. "How's my brother?"

"He's perfectly fine dear. He had a mild case of hypothermia, but he's all but recovered by now. We're just keeping him for observation. He's in the next room with a couple other friends of yours."

"Who else is here?" I directed my question at Mello.

"Matt and Linda are next door. Your brother woke up some time last night."

"Last night? What day is it?"

"It's boxing day, the twenty-sixth of December." I didn't really know what to make of that. It sounded like I'd been out of it for more than a day.

I yawned weakly and shuddered involuntarily. A residual effect of the hypothermia no doubt.

"I'm going to go get the doctor, if you think you can stay awake for a little longer."

"Yeah, sure, why not," I said sarcastically. I really wanted to sleep but all doctors ever cared about was their tests and their own agendas. I heard the nurse walk out of the room; I didn't have to open my eyes to know that Mello was still there, but I tried to anyway. "Hey Mel," I said as I made him out at the foot of my bed, his head in his hands, sitting on a stool I would guess. He didn't look up. "Mello!" I hollered quietly and he finally looked up to meet my gaze. I batted my eyelids a couple times to clear the fuzziness from them, but it didn't work. I assumed because I'd been out of it for so long, coupled with the shock of the cold water.

"What?" he asked harshly.

"Don't get snappy," I chided lightly, "I just wanted to make sure I had your attention." I smiled at him to let him know I wasn't actually angry. He gave me a look that said, 'Well, you've got my attention, start talking.' "What'd I miss while I was out of it?" I asked casually.

"Oh, uh, I don't know. You almost died! You and your twin."

"The Nurse said Near was fine," I recalled worriedly.

"Yeah, after they got him to the hospital."

"Well then, what's the problem, we're both okay," I smiled weakly. I felt like I was treading on thinner ice with Mello than the actual ice I had fallen through the other day.

"The problem is that you used all your energy to save him, and I had to crawl out on the ice into the middle of that stream to haul you out of the water and save you," he sounded quite displeased at what he was telling me.

"Well I'm sorry you had to risk your life to save me," I said coolly, not bothering to hide the hurt in my voice.

"That's not it, don't you get it?" he asked, and I started to hear something more in his voice than resentment, maybe, regret?

Just then the doctor strolled in. "Ah, Ms. Jewel, feeling better are we?"

Better than what? And don't use the pronoun 'we' doctor, you did not just survive an almost drowning, and get hypothermia. You are not a part of 'we'. Near and I are the only people in this hospital who should be able to say 'we' right now. "We're just fine thanks," I answered, the sarcasm was not hard to miss. I blinked my eyes a couple times in another futile attempt to clear the fog from my eyes.

I could barely make out the doctor pulling out some sort of clipboard and checking items off a list as he asked me a generic set of questions.

"So doc, when are my eyes going to clear up?" I finally managed to bring up. "I mean, I know I was out of it for a while, but it shouldn't take too long for them to adjust right?"

I could just barely, if at all, make out the expressions from Mello, the nurse, and the doctor as a reaction to my question... I didn't like what I was seeing.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>! We finally know when/why Jewel got her glasses which were seen so repeatedly in my other story. Yes, she's going to need the glasses to correct the eye problem. I would like to do a quick shout-out to an author whose FanFic I read a while ago, which gave me a little bit of inspiration for this chapter :) If you happen to know which author or which FanFic I happen to be talking about, let me know, because I can't seem to find it again.

...Man, I can't believe this chapter ended up being so long, LOL.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **Oh man, I just had this phenomenal idea for something I could've added/altered about my last FanFic, but then I remembered why I didn't do that in the first place. Rats, I was so stoked on this idea too... Oh well. I was going to do a, "Suppose Mello never died. Suppose he went into hiding and never told anybody, and then one day Jewel just happens to come across him in the streets one day?" I thought to myself, 'Why not? He didn't have to have died in the fire.' But then I remembered that he didn't die in the fire per say, the Death Note killed him... and remembering that in turn killed my buzz. Oh well.

As well, I am sorry for the late update by the way. I knew when I got my job that I would be updating less but this is just ridiculous. It's gotten to the point where I: get up, eat, go to work, come back home, eat, sleep; repeat. It's a wonder my head's still screwed on LOL. Well, I hope you guys can forgive me ^.^ Enjoy this chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>Tuesday December 26, 2006<strong>

"_Well I'm sorry you had to risk your life to save me," I said coolly, not bothering to hide the hurt in my voice._

"_That's not it, don't you get it?" he asked, and I started to hear something more in his voice than resentment, maybe, regret?_

_Just then the doctor strolled in. "Ah, Ms. Jewel, feeling better are we?"_

"_We're just fine thanks," I answered, the sarcasm was not hard to miss. I blinked my eyes a couple times in another futile attempt to clear the fog from my eyes._

_I could barely make out the doctor pulling out some sort of clipboard and checking items off a list as he asked me a generic set of questions._

"_So doc, when are my eyes going to clear up?" I finally managed to bring up. "I mean, I know I was out of it for a while, but it shouldn't take too long for them to adjust right?"_

_I could just barely, if at all, make out the expressions from Mello, the nurse, and the doctor as a reaction to my question... And I didn't like what I was seeing._

The doctor followed my inquiry with a bunch more questions; asking me this, that and the other thing until I finally confessed to him that I remembered hitting the back of my head on the ice. The back of my head where the occipital lobe is located, the back of my head where sensory input from the optic nerves is translated into pictures, the back of my head where eyesight is centred.

By the end of my interrogation I was feeling just terrible. The leading questions the doctor was asking had led me to one obvious conclusion: this wasn't reparable. The doctor had the nurse put in a call to some sort of specialist, and told her to call Roger as well. They needed to discuss what had happened. The doctor had told Mello to go grab me a wheelchair and with it he took me to another wing of the hospital.

I knew which room it was even without being able to see it clearly. It was the eye exam room, and right at the end was the slit lamp. I'd been behind one enough times during my life but the results had always been the same. I always came away with 20/20 vision. I doubted very much that I would be so lucky this time.

I took my seat in the examination chair.

"Doctor Connors," so that was his name, "Roger Ruvie is on his way from the orphanage and Doctor Octavio..." you've got to be kidding me, there's no way two names were that close. I was not going to be treated by anybody with a name so close to Doc. Ock's, "...is on vacation," the nurse said as she let herself into the room with another clipboard. She had to push past Mello who had followed us and was leaning in the doorway. "Um, would you like to wait in another room?" she asked him. It was more than a question, but less than a suggestion.

"NO!" I objected a little too loudly for a hospital. I didn't really want to be left alone right now; even if I wasn't technically going to be alone. I didn't have to see that all their eyes were on me to know that they were; I could feel it. I was sure they were wondering if there wasn't anything more than my eyesight they ought to be checking.

"No, no, it's perfectly fine. Mr. uh, Mello is it? He's more than welcome to keep you company. I'll be right back, there's some procedural items I need to take care of before we get underway with this." I followed the motion of the nurse and the doctor as they both left the room. Mello came and pulled up a stool beside me.

There was an awkward silence between us for a moment before he said, "So, you really can't see anything?"

"Not a whole lot," I said quietly, I wasn't really sure if this was something I was going to be able to wrap my head around; not being able to see and all. "I can still see shapes and colours I guess. If you and the Doc were standing beside each other I could easily tell who was who, but I don't know if I could do much more than that," my voice fell and cracked on the last sentence.

Mello stayed silent for another moment and the tension was mounting until he came back with, "I... I'm..."

"You don't have to say it Mello," the whole apology was in his tone. Besides, if Mello apologised, it just might make him resent me and my brother even more. That, I felt, would be harder to live with than my missing eyesight. I could get used to not seeing; I don't think I could ever quite get used to someone hating me.

"But I do, I suppose I owe you that much," there it was, the resentment was back.

I hung my head in defeat, but just as Mello was about to start speaking again I cut him off, "Wait, what did you tell Roger? Does he know what happened?" That probably wasn't the best thing to counter him with at the moment. If anybody had told the truth Mello would be in a world of trouble, and bringing it up right now wouldn't help anybody.

"Near slipped on the ice. That's as much as he knows... It's not a lie!" Mello asserted defensively before I could even respond. "But if you or your little clone want to go ahead and tell him what happened, be my guest. It won't make any difference to me, I don't care."

"Are you still playing that card Mello? The one where you don't care?" I asked lightly. I don't know what possessed me to do so, but in the next second I reached out and took Mello's hand in mine. Maybe I just needed a little bit of comforting, maybe I thought he did; whatever the reason was, I know it made me feel better.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and held Mello's hand on top of them. I turned my head away so that I couldn't see Mello's reaction, and so he couldn't see my blush. If Mello was angry or uncomfortable I didn't want to know, and if Mello was going to react badly to my blush, well he didn't need to know about it either. It didn't feel like he minded though. It felt like, it felt like, maybe holding my hand had made him feel better too. Of course that could just be wishful thinking on my part; but I wouldn't think about that. All I wanted to think about right now was the feel of Mello's hand in mine. It was warm and firm and...

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

Mello jerked his hand away and I told myself it was just a basic reaction at having been startled. Even so it didn't make me feel any better.

"Alright, I'm going to run you through the basic eye exam. We've reached an eye specialist, he'll be here shortly, and Mr. Ruvie is on his way. Can I get you to tilt your head back, I'm going to use these drops to dilate your pupils," the doctor said pulling a bottle of eye drops from a cupboard. Mello shifted out of the way and the doctor pulled another bottle of eye drops from the cupboard before he took the same seat Mello had been using. "Now, the dilating drops sting a bit, so I'm going to use these other drops first to numb your eyes before we dilate them."

I nodded slightly, I knew the routine.

"You know," Mello piped up, "there's an easier way to do that... dilate her pupils I mean." I didn't have to see Mello's sly smile to know that it was there; I chuckled quietly myself. The doctor either didn't like our joke or didn't get it. I assumed it would be a little of both.

* * *

><p>We ran through all the basic tests, and a couple more advanced ones. The doctor was taking an especially long time with a couple of them, but I figured that since this wasn't just a routine eye exam a little extra care in the matter was understandable.<p>

By the end of it all I had a major headache. Not from the process itself I figured, but my brain was working overtime to try and get my eyes to focus and it just wasn't working. The whole situation seemed bleak and dismal and all in all just too much to handle.

The optometrist showed up a little while later; and the word was that Roger was already in the building, but had, as of yet, not come to speak to me himself. Between the specialist, the tests and the miscellaneous doctors that happened to be curious enough to step into the room, it was decided (as I had feared from the beginning,) that the problem lay not with my eyes, but my brain. In short there wasn't a whole lot they could do for me.

They needed to do something though, that much was evident. Using a phoropter, something that I'd always loved the name of, they determined the type of lenses I would need for the glasses that were now required.

The prescriptions were complicated and would take a while to fill. They let me try on some of the different frames that they had on hand, but of course I couldn't see how they looked on me, so I let Mello pick the ones he thought looked the best. He hadn't said a whole lot while I was trying them on, but when I got to the last pair Mello spoke up. "Those ones," was all he said. His tone was so colourless that I couldn't gauge how well they looked on me, but I assumed they were alright.

Roger had been filling out paperwork, or so he told us when he finally turned up. It seemed as though everything was in order and it was more or less time for me to go home. I'd just have to endure the fuzziness until my glasses were ready.

Before they let me leave they ran a couple more tests to check other areas of brain activity. It was concluded I had a concussion, but a very mild one; not something that I would have to worry about.

The whole process had seemed so tedious and exhausting when I was going through it, but in hind sight it all went quite quickly. The laboriousness of the testing had seemed magnified because of my overwhelming tiredness and general discomfort; but it was all over now... or so I thought.

* * *

><p>Roger, Mello, Near, Matt and I were headed back to Wammy's.<p>

Matt walked be back up to my room and Near took himself back to his because he didn't need glasses. He could see just fine. Mello slunked off to his room by himself, and Roger... Roger followed Matt and me into my room.

"Matt, please excuse yourself," he said as Matt escorted me to a sitting position on the end of my bed.

Matt shot me a quick look and then left the room.

"I hope you understand Jewel, that although I regret your condition, it will not be an influential factor in my decision to keep you here if your grades happen to suffer because of it."

"In other words," I figured, "if I can't keep up with my studies, I'm out of here?" I asked snidely.

Roger paused a second, "Precisely."

I narrowed my eyes and set my jaw. Part of me wanted to give up right then and there; part of me wanted to say 'screw it all' and just pack my things and walk away. There was another part of me though, a stubborn, nagging part that just wouldn't let me quit like that. "I understand Sir," I replied in a robotic monotone.

Roger paused another second, gauging my reaction no doubt, and then he turned on his heels and let himself out.

I slumped on the end of my bed. I felt so defeated, like everything was happening to me all at once. I finally got a little ahead, only to fall right back down again.

"Hey," a voice called from my open doorway.

I didn't look up when I answered, "What's up Mello?"

I heard him walk into my room and drop what must have been a half dozen textbooks on my desk. "You're probably going to need help studying after all now. What with your eyes and who knows whatever other brain damage you suffered." I decided I wasn't going to take that as an insult; mostly because it wasn't. I knew by now that it was Mello's way of offering to make amends, and I was flattered.

I slid off the bed onto my knees and started fishing in one of the drawers of my end table for a stick of gum. I really needed one right now.

When I didn't say anything Mello continued, "I heard what Roger said. If you're willing to work hard enough your eyes aren't going to be the reason you get kicked out of here."

"So I'm going to be kicked out for another reason?" I asked sarcastically.

"Don't get smart."

"Funny, I thought that was the point of this school... to make us smarter."

"Don't get smart."

"So what's any of this have to do with you anyway?" I asked, trying to disguise my tone. I already knew what answer I was hoping for.

"I'm going to help you study... unless you don't want me to of course. It doesn't make any difference to me... it's not like I care." I saw Mello shrug casually but I had a feeling if I kicked him out he would, indeed, care.

"I'd like that, a lot," I said quietly as I finished rummaging in my drawer and pulled out a pack of bubblegum. It was strangely addictive... and so was Mello.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Man, this chapter took FOREVER to get up. Genuinely sorry for that. I know what a pain it can be to wait for new chapters. Please don't hate though, I've been working nonstop.

Anyway...

Today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D

How old are all you guys? I mean, I'd like to know the demographic, who all I'm writing for, if you will. For instance, I started reading FanFics in the 8th grade, these day's I'm writing them. Where are all of you in your FanFiction journey? :)


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: **I think you guys will like this one ;P

Also, I think I've gotten back into my writing groove :D I've got the next two chapters all planned out ^.^

Thanks to everyone who reviewed and didn't hate on me for being so late with the last update. And hey, 'favouriting/subscribing' are awesome reviews in themselves. You guys rock :D You all inspire me to do my best, and all I can hope to do is to live up to your expectations.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>Sunday December 31, 2006<strong>

I wasn't mad at him, and it had been so sweet of Mello to offer to help me with my studies. There was only one thing wrong with the whole situation... I had to point out to Mello that it was Winter Break and I had no studies that he needed to help me with.

In fact, it would be another week before either of us needed to worry about studying again; even so, on my regular midnight walks I still found a soft, yellow glow coming from under the library door.

I'd worry about all that later though. Right now, I was excited. I was excited because I was using my new glasses to pick out the outfit that I would wear to the New Years banquet which was hosted by the orphanage. I could see pretty well with them, and was already more or less used to the feel of wearing glasses constantly; they weren't as bad as I had feared.

I stared hard into my closet. I didn't have a whole lot to choose from, but I definitely wanted to make the right choice; it was after all, a special occasion. I'd been debating all day and still hadn't come any closer to deciding what I ought to wear. I could put on my bellbottom jeans, the ones that flared out a foot on each side and had rhinestones in jewelled patterns all up and down the seams; I could pair that with an elegant shirt. I could wear my red plaid skirt and stockings; I could pair that with my button down, black silk shirt. I had a long black dress that really made what curves I had stand out, very fashionable. Then of course there was...

"You know, we're not going to wait all day," Matt teased from my doorway. "In fact, we can't wait all day; that would defeat the purpose."

"I can't decide!" I whined.

"What's it matter? Just pick something." Mello cut in, joining Matt in my doorway."

"Oh Mello you'll never understand the drama a girl will go through in order to..." I threw a pillow from my bed at Matt's head to shut him up.

I self consciously pushed my glasses further up the bridge of my nose as I asked Mello, "What do you like best?"

"What do I like best? Those are all chic clothes. What do I care about chic clothes?"

I shrugged and smiled sheepishly, "Well then you guys have to get out of here. I've got to get dressed."

"We'll meet you down there," Matt called and the two of them closed my door and left me with my thoughts,

I dug in my drawer and pulled out a package of bubblegum. I was officially hooked, and I had a feeling that it wasn't just the bubblegum I was hooked on. I stuck a stick of bubblegum in my mouth. There was just something about the sticky, sweetness that made life all better. There was just something about Mello that seemed to make life all better.

Mello was angry and ornery, he was bad-tempered and crass, and insensitive... and more than anything he was misunderstood. Mello was sensitive and caring, he was hurt and guarded and bitter about his past; he had a problem showing any emotions except those with synonyms like 'frustration' and 'angst'. I wanted Mello to be able to trust people again, to not have to push them away; I wanted Mello to be able to trust me, to not have to push me away. All of the other orphans here had seemingly moved on with their lives; even I was coping with the idea of not having parents; but Mello? Mello was still stuck in the past, still wouldn't let go of the fact that his parents had abandoned him. And who could blame him? For the rest of us, our parents had just died; Mello's had abandoned him.

I could see it, and I knew Matt could too. All the other's just attributed Mello's sourness to his upbringing, or lack of success at beating Near; but I could see the real reason, and I wanted to help him.

I pulled my skirt and black, silk top from a hanger in the middle of my closet; I had made my decision.

I got dressed quickly, spritzed some perfume, fixed my makeup and let my hair down from its braids. I hadn't realised how long my hair had gotten. My silky, silver waves were down past the tops of my shoulder blades, and my bangs framed my face with a metallic trim. I clipped a ruby and obsidian necklace around my neck to match my skirt and top, and slid the matching earrings into my ears. It was all silver. All the jewellery I owned was either white gold, silver or stainless steel; it matched my skin tone and hair the best.

It was one thing to arrive fashionably late, but there was a fine line between fashionably late and just plain rude. I was about to take off downstairs, but when I threw open my door there was a figure standing right outside.

"You really ought to stay away from Mello you know. The only reason he's being nice to you is because he feels sorry for you. Sorry that you suck at this school and sorry that you're handicapped now."

"Mello's being nice to me?" I asked Caitlin sarcastically in response. She'd gotten dressed up as well. She was in a long, form hugging black dress with red accents, and had her hair done up in a bun. She wasn't wearing any jewellery though.

"You'll be lucky if you can keep up this semester. The work load I all but doubled second semester. You're finished, you're through here."

"Is there a chop list? Do the bottom fifty kids get voted off the island?" I smirked.

"You think you're really smart don't you?" she asked, the venom dripping in her tone.

"I'm smarter than you. I'm in the top fifty. Maybe you ought to worry about your grades instead of mine. What are your lackeys going to do without you around to tell them what to do? They don't have a half a brain between them."

"You stay away from him or I'm going to make your life so miserable!"

"You mean, more than you already do? Please, you're just a pest, go fly into someone else's ointment."

"What?"

"You're a fly in the ointment," I can't believe I had to explain it, "a small, inconsequential, but irritating flaw that spoils everything. Or as _Ecclesiastes 10:1_says, 'As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour.' Granted, you've got more than a little flaw and you never did have much wisdom and honour," I shrugged casually as if none of this mattered to me either way, as if it was far beneath me. As I recited the old verse I recalled a line from my most favourite Shakespearian play, Romeo and Juliet. 'O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.' I loved that play and I loved that line, but for some reason I had a feeling of malaise as I recited it in my head. "Just stay away from Mello."

"If you've got such a problem with it, why don't you tell Mello to stay away from ME?"

"Heh, shows how much YOU know," she snorted and turned around and left.

That was is; it was over. I listened to her footfalls as she stomped down the stairs. I waited until I couldn't hear her anymore before I followed her down to the banquet.

* * *

><p>It was quite an elegant affair. The cafeteria had been done up with streamers and balloons and there were coloured tablecloths on all the tables. There was a large table, which was probably a couple tables covered by one large table cloth, set up against a far wall. It was covered with every kind of desert imaginable and three glistening bowls of punch; one red, one purple, and one green. On an adjacent pair of tables, covered in the same colour of cloth were trays and trays of finger foods. Silver platters held cold cuts and cheeses, fruits, vegetables. There were bowls of dips and baskets of rolls.<p>

"Mmm," I just couldn't contain my approval.

"I know... eh? It's... amazing!" Matt said with enthusiasm, coming up behind me with food in his mouth and a plate of food in his hands. Mello came up silently behind him, no plate.

"I can't believe Roger goes through all this trouble..."

"Oh, it's not Roger," Matt corrected, swallowing his last bite of food. "Wammy puts all this together. He's some kind of rich inventor person. He's pretty awesome."

I looked at Mello for conformation but he seemed to just be off in his own little world.

"Hey Mello, you there?" I waved my hand in front of his face.

"Cut that out," he grumbled after a second.

"Sorry, it's just... you seem..."

"Chocolate."

"What?"

"I'm going to get some chocolate!" Mello all but hollered at me and stormed off. Matt and I shared a glance that said, 'What's gotten into him?' but we both just shrugged it off and went after him, taking Mello's mood for one of his typical mood swings.

"Hey Mello, hold on a sec," I called and reached out to grab his arm.

He jerked away violently from my touch and turned around to face me. "Cut it out, just leave me the hell alone!" he shouted.

"Mello," came a very stern, unhappy voice from behind us. "You've just earned yourself a detention young man." I'd dare anyone to say that Roger didn't run a tight ship.

Mello grumbled in front of me, but knew there was no point in arguing; he trudged off out of the room and down the hall. It had all happened so fast; he'd gotten himself a detention on New Year's Eve... and it was my fault.

Once Roger left Matt came up behind me, "Hey, do you know what that was about?" I just stood there, I couldn't move or speak or think. I caught a glimpse of Near sitting at a far table by himself, he hadn't bothered dressing up like most of the other kids had.

"Gem?" Matt asked, breaking through my mental barrier.

"Uh, I'm okay. I've got to go fix this though, or at least find out what happened. Do you want to cover for me if anyone asks where I've gone?"

"Uh, yeah, sure?"

Once the party started up again after the yelling episode, I snuck to the kitchen and removed a clean bowl from a stack which was sitting on the marble counter tops. I made it back silently to the dessert table and scooped a handful of Hershey's Kisses into the bowl I'd grabbed.

"Mello?" I called as I approached the detention room door. I'd never been sent here myself, but I knew where it was. When Roger decided to give someone a detention, you knew where to go; and no one needed to be escorted either, you just went. You didn't try to hide, or avoid it; you did your time and didn't complain about it. Or so Matt had told me. "Mello?" I called again and opened the door.

The lights were off in the room, opening the door cast a pyramid shaped beam of light into the darkness.

"You shouldn't be here," Mello said as the light washed over him.

"Your mood swings are going to give me whiplash eh?" I said light-heartedly as I closed the door behind me and walked over to Mello.

There was a soft blue light coming in from the windows. The moon was glinting off of all the crystals of snow on the ground and I realised it hadn't been as dark in this room as I had first thought. In fact, it was beautiful, and the pale blue light wasn't something you could see if the light was on.

I pulled up a chair beside Mello and sat down, placing the bowl of chocolates on the table in front of him. The light coming in through the windows was casting shadows all over the place, giving the room a mysterious atmosphere.

"Thanks," Mello said grudgingly as he helped himself to the chocolates.

"No problem," I waited a second and then continued, "So what was all of that about then?"

"Nothing."

"I'm so sure."

"You shouldn't be here."

"Should I leave?" I started.

Mello seemed to catch slyness in my tone but said that I had better leave anyway.

"Should I take the chocolate with me?" I asked, all joking aside.

"That's not fair."

"No, what's not fair is you not telling me what's bothering you."

Mello clammed up after that, but I didn't mind. It was nice to sit here with him in the pale glow of the moonlight in absolute silence.

"So, what are you going to do this new year?" I asked after a while.

"Become number one again," Mello answered without having to think about it.

"Well, an A+ for determination," I smiled.

"I really wish you wouldn't patronize me."

"I wasn't, I'm serious," I chuckled.

Mello paused a beat and then asked, "What're you going to do this year?"

"This year hmm?" What would I do this year? If nothing else, what did I hope to do this year?

Mello, I want you and me to become really good friends, "I want to make more friends." I want us to spend more time together and hang out, "I want to developed new hobbies." I want you to like me, "I want to become a stronger person." I want you to be there for me, "I want to conquer my fears."

"Meh, typical answers. You just handed me a fortune cookie."

"A fortune cookie?"

"You know, those fortunes you get. They're specific enough to mean something, but vague enough to mean something to everybody."

"Yeah, I suppose I did." I said sheepishly. "But you know, sometimes a fortune cookie is really all you need," I beamed up at him.

Behind us the old, oak grandfather clock started to chime.

_Ding, ding, ding..._

I checked my watch, "It's midnight," I said, stating the obvious, "its January first."

_Ding, ding, ding..._

"You know," I started quietly, "there's this tradition, that's widely accepted," my voice was growing softer with every word until I could scarcely hear myself. "It says that on New Year's Eve, when the clock strikes twelve, two people, they ought to..." I couldn't bring myself to finish my sentence, and I couldn't make myself disguise my blush.

_Ding, ding, ding..._

Mello and I stared intently at each other for a moment, a moment that seemed to last forever.

_Ding, ding, ding..._

Mello leaned in without warning and our lips connected.

I swear I felt my heart explode in that second. My whole body felt like lightning was coursing through it, and my skin felt like static cling from the dryer. I heard millions of honey bee humming in my ears and I saw the brightest, most beautiful lights. I let myself fall away and melt into Mello; the two of us became one, and life was absolutely perfect.

He tasted like chocolate. Bonus.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>So, I found out the other day that Gwen Stefani has a perfume out... a perfume called "L".

Oh but wait, there's more: the logo for this perfume isn't just any old 'L', its L's 'L'! If that makes any sense... The logo looks identical to L's funky font-ed 'L'.

Oh but wait, there's more: 'I want you all over me'... (Yes, I'm sure she does, if she's talking about our L,) is the tagline for this perfume.

Now, there's two ways to look at this situation.

Gwen Stefani is an L fan.

This is all purely coincidental.

But whatever the case is, is anyone else as unimpressed as I am that L's good name is being used to market perfume?


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: **Okay, some of you might've noticed my dates were a little off =^_^= ...and after I tried so hard to be careful about that too. I keep forgetting that I'm going off the anime and not the manga, and so I went back to all the dated chapters and fixed them :) So if you were keeping up and are now wondering why it was 2004, and now it's suddenly 2007, well that's why ha-ha. Although, for those of you who know what happened in 2004/2007 you should know that I ought not to be laughing... Yes my friends, it is that fateful year :/

And oh! As per a reviewer's question, referencing chapter 15 of my last Fic: I can't believe you remembered that, LOL. But yes, I do have a chapter already written that I'm going to insert later that's going to cover that topic you brought up. ...Talk about a keener ^_^ that's awesome!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p><strong>Monday January 1, 2007<strong>

The clock stopped dinging, but the ringing in my ears didn't quit. Mello and I separated slowly and spent the next love-filled moment gazing into each other's eyes. The light from the full moon cast diamonds into Mello's blazing cerulean eyes. I wondered what kind of an effect the pale light would have on my grey eyes, but then I realised that if the light was coming in from behind me, I must be completely shrouded in shadows.

"Jewel..." hearing him say my name sent goose bumps all over my skin, "I, I've got something for you."

"For me?" I asked surprised, my focus being stolen from our kiss.

"You... you weren't here for Christmas," I could see the regret in Mello's face; it was indirectly his fault that I had not been at Wammy's for Christmas. "I couldn't give it to you then. I'd like you to have it now."

I beamed at him in the darkness, "Well alright, let's have it."

"Well, I guess I have to wait for my detention to be..."

Suddenly a thin yellow line of light shone into the room between us; separating us like a laser beam. Both our heads shot to the door which I had closed; the heavy oak door which I had closed, but that now had creaked open one half inch. We both sat staring wide-eyed at the door for over a minute, hearts racing and white hot adrenaline coursing through our veins. When nothing happened, when we saw no shadow and the door failed to move again, I got up slowly, leaned against the door and closed it again. I was breathing heavily, half expecting a ghost or some other spectre from the world of science fiction to appear and devour my soul.

I turned back to Mello, hesitantly turning my back to the door. "I must not have closed it as well as I thought. There must be a crosscurrent or a draft somewhere," I rationalised as my breathing returned to normal.

"Heh, yeah, that's what happened," Mello agreed, a hint of scepticism in his voice.

I worked my way back over to Mello, threading my way through the extra small class room. That's what the detention room was. I had been told that when Wammy's had only accommodated a handful of students, this room had been big enough for a classroom, but now with a larger population of children the classrooms had grown in size. There were only six desks in the room, save for a teacher's desk at the head of the class and in front of the window. It remained mostly unused as students who were sent to detention were usually trusted to behave themselves. They had already gotten detention; they had no desire to make their circumstances worse.

I sat down beside Mello again, "Surely you can't be expected to spend all night in here," I said, returning our conversation back to the topic at hand.

"Roger should be in soon to tell me it's okay to leave."

"Roger's at the party, he's not..."

Mello and I both nearly leapt out of our skin when the stream of yellow light returned between us. This time I could swear I saw a shadow move in and out of the light behind the door, and after chancing a glance at Mello I was sure he saw it too. I knew what he was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing; if Roger came in and found the two of us in here... we were both going to be in some serious trouble.

After a second however, the apparent shadow seemed to all but vanish. Maybe I blinked, maybe it really hadn't been there at all.

"Any word if this place is haunted? You know, old spirits? Wives or husbands murdered, chopped up and stuck in the walls? Little children dying or maybe a possessed pet or two? What happened to the previous owners?" I asked in all seriousness.

"Calm down, I was probably just that cross-draft you were talking about. Maybe that door just doesn't close properly."

"S-sure," I stuttered. I got up to close the door again, but as I neared the wooden planks I heard footsteps in the hallway; footsteps that were getting louder, footsteps that were getting closer. "Someone's coming!" I hissed in a harsh whisper.

"It's probably Roger, get out of here now!"

"It's too late, he'll see me!"

I stood frozen for half a second as the adrenaline started flowing in my veins again.

My heart was jack-hammering in my chest before Mello finally said, "Hide in the foot well of the desk!"

I raced over to the teacher's desk on my tippy toes. Trying to be fast, but more, trying to be quiet. I dove into the well just as I heard the door open. My blood was pulsing in my ears and I would swear that the whole world could hear my laboured breaths.

The prism of yellow light returned completely, and I saw the length of it extend past the edge of the desk I was hiding under.

"Mello," a haggard old voice asked, "why are you sitting in here with the lights off?"

"There wasn't anything I needed the lights for," Mello responded matter-of-factly.

Roger seemed to grumble doubtfully but he didn't push the issue. "Well, you're free to rejoin us in the other room if you want."

"I'll probably just go to bed actually."

"Well, the choice is yours." There was a short pause and I thought Roger was about to leave, when he said, "Oh, so long as I'm here, I might as well pick up the papers I left here the other day."

Papers!

"Papers?" Mello tried to ask coolly.

"Yes, I was discussion with Quillish the other day about some of the policies around here were possibly needing to be resolved. And then there was the issue with..." Roger seemed to sense that he was going on and on, "Well it's nothing you need to trouble yourself with Mello. I'll just pick them up from the desk and be on my way."

The desk!

"The desk?" Mello asked again.

"Yes?" Roger asked suspiciously, as if to say, 'where else would one keep important documentation?'

"Well I'll get them for you sir," I heard a chair scrape back against the floor and hurried footsteps coming towards me. It would've been hard enough to explain to Roger why I was in here in the first place, it would be harder still to try and explain to Roger why I felt the need to hide under the desk.

Roger seemed taken aback by Mello's offer, "Well, uh, thank you; but the drawer is locked actually, I need to open it with a key lad."

I heard slow, heavy footsteps coming closer and closer to me. The room was still dark, but the light from the window was shining right on my face. I'd be seen for sure!

"Wait sir!"

"What is it Mello?" Roger asked, the exasperation was becoming evident in his tone.

"Well its New Year's sir. You shouldn't think about doing any work on New Year's."

"I'm just grabbing some papers lad; I'm not going to do any work tonight. It's alright."

I heard the footsteps grow closer still and I heard the jingling of keys. Under the desk I could see Roger's shoes come around to the window side. That's it, I was done for!

"Sir!"

"WHAT MELLO?"

"I must insist, in the interest of fun, that you not get those papers tonight. You work too hard, you're going to give yourself a heart attack. This is supposed to be a special occasion. You are not allowed to even think about work tonight," Mello demanded.

"Well, I never..."

"Roger!" came another loud and urgent voice from the door. "It's chaos! It's pandemonium! You must control the situation!" Matt shouted into the room.

"What's this?" Roger asked. I saw his shadow disappear from the light and heard him stomp off with Matt towards the cafeteria.

Mello and I waited a whole thirty seconds before he finally said, "It's okay, you can come out now."

I sighed with relief as Mello's shadow appeared in front of me, blocking out the pale moonlight. Surprise caught me next as Mello extended his hand toward me. I smiled shyly and blushed lightly as I accepted his help.

* * *

><p>We walked hand in hand back up to my room, and sat on my bed together. I was more happy than I'd ever been in my whole life in that moment. I was filled with joy, and bliss and ecstasy... life was perfect.<p>

"So, do you want your gifts?" Mello asked.

"Gifts? As in plural?"

"Yeah, all the students get at least one gift every Christmas, L gives them."

"L gives them? how sweet," I beamed. Mello slid off of my bed and started digging under it. "Hey, what're you doing?"

"You weren't here, so you gifts were put under your bed."

"Really?" To think I'd been sleeping on top of my gifts for a week and hadn't noticed.

"There's one here from Matt too."

"You're kidding."

Matt came back up from the floor and handed me three small, but brightly wrapped packages. I opened the one from L first, it was a 9x9 Rubik's Cube. I thought that was a little excessive because I hadn't even solved a 3x3 yet, but Mello assured me that he and L had the utmost confidence in me. I opened Matt's gift next and found four jewelled CD cases with discs inside.

"What're these?" I asked Mello.

"Matt's really into computers, those could be anything."

"But they're not just anything," Matt said in my doorway. The way these two kept popping up was going to give me whiplash. "They're software. Hacking software to be exact. Once I show you how to use those you'll be able to get into any computer you want."

"You're kidding."

"Nope."

"That's great Matt, now buzz off."

"Sure thing boss," Matt winked and left towards his room.

"Thanks Matt!" I called after him. He seemed to chuckle at his own private joke. I looked down at the last package in my hands; the one from Mello.

It was wrapped in black paper and had a silver ribbon on it. I opened the wrapping more carefully than I had the other gifts. When I finally had the ribbon and the paper off I saw a small, flat box. I opened the lid and found a folded piece of black fabric. I picked it up delicately between my finger tips and let it unfold itself until it hit the floor. It was an exceptionally long, wide scarf. It was exceptionally beautiful.

"Oh Mello," I whispered. "Thank you, it's perfect."

The colour was deep and rich and pure, and the fabric was miraculously soft. It must have only been cotton, but it felt like cashmere. I wrapped it around my neck twice and found that both ends hung down past my waist and because it was so wide, the top of it came up and over my nose. I chuckled lightly and another light, rose coloured blush hinted at the crests of my cheeks.

Mello reached over and folded the scarf in half length wise so that he could see my face.

"Thank you Mello, so much." I leaned in slowly and wrapped my arms around his waist. I snuggled in as close as I could get and rested my head against his chest.

I sighed and breathed in deeply; I was so incredibly happy, but became happier still when Mello returned my gesture and hugged me back.

We stayed there for a moment, wrapped up in each other's arms, and wrapped up in thoughts about each other.

* * *

><p>We separated far too quickly in my opinion, but I'm sure we both realised we needed sleep. And besides, we would have the rest of forever to spend in each other's arms. That's what I told myself.<p>

Mello disappeared from my room, and as I was about to get up and turn the lights off and close my door, Matt once again appeared in my doorway. Those two needed bells around their necks or something.

"Success," Mello winked at me.

"Success?"

"The social experiment. It was a success. I can't wait to type this up for my human behaviours and psychology class," Matt got an evil smile on his face and rubbed his hands together the way a mad scientist might.

"Okay, Matt, that's the third time you've brought up that experiment of yours, and I still don't even know what it is," I pointed out.

"You mean you haven't figured it out yet?"

"That's what I mean."

"You and Mello."

"What?"

"You and Mello, you're perfect for each other. I knew since day one you guys were going to hook up."

"MATT!"

"I'm serious! I could tell," he chuckled, "I'm a good judge of character," he winked. "I kept intervening where I could, but it looks like The Fates finally stepped in," Matt chuckled again at his own success.

"So then...?"

"Yeah, I saw you two just now," he winked again.

"So you're the one who opened the door."

"Yup."

"Well did you have to peak in more than once? It was annoying," I chided lightly.

Suddenly Matt got a confused look on his face, "I only peaked once," he asserted.

I thought about that fact for a moment and then decided to write it off, it didn't really matter anyway.

* * *

><p>I woke up quite tired, but I felt amazing none the less. It was like waking up after a short sleep but a great dream.<p>

I got dressed quickly and ran down to breakfast. It was a casual, drop-in breakfast today; one, because of the holiday, and two, because everyone had been up so late the night before. I rounded the corner to the cafeteria and stopped dead in my tracks. I felt like I had been punched in the gut, which, even if I had been, I was sure I wouldn't have felt it. I wouldn't have felt it because my whole body had gone numb inside a half a second, and even though I hadn't eaten since yesterday at lunch I wasn't the least bit hungry any more. In fact, not only was I no longer hungry, I felt the overwhelming desire to rid my body of anything foreign. I was sick to my stomach.

I felt my skin grow cold and clammy and my breath was coming in short, shallow bursts. I felt my blood start to boil and I honestly began to see red. My mouth contorted into a vicious snarl and I curled my hands into tight fists; my long nails digging into my skin. A high pitched static tone started in my ears and I tasted bile in my mouth. Worst of all, I felt hot, stinging tears behind my eyes; but I wouldn't dare give anyone the satisfaction of letting them fall. I tried to tell myself that this kind of reaction was just ridiculous. I tried to tell myself that I ought to be rational and sensible and use logic to dictate my life, not emotions. I tried to tell myself a lot of things, but none of them got through, there was too much adrenaline in my blood, and I was in the 'fight of flight' mode... I was leaning towards the 'fight' option myself.

"I'm so sorry Jewel," Matt said coming up behind me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me around so that I would look at him.

He turned me around so that I would see him, and so that I would not see Mello. So that I would not see Mello standing with Caitlin. So that I would not see Mello standing with Caitlin with his arm around her and her arm around him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>You know, I appreciate the uniqueness of spelling 'Wammy' without an 'h', but it's a real pain to try and explain to my autocorrect that it's still a word, with or without, the 'h'.

And by the way, for the love of all that is wholly... someone please remind me later in the story to have Jewel acquire her cute little teddy bear from L. I just know I'm going to forget!


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: **So, I hope no one hates me for the way I ended the last chapter. Bet you guys weren't expecting that ;P I did manage to warn some of you about a twist ha-ha, well that was it... well that was ONE of the twists :P

And Laurel, if you're still reading these... you know you're not interested in Death Note, go read an Ouran Fic ;P ;P  
>...Yes, my 'friend' Laurel managed to acquire secret documentation, regarding information, about my Fic... despite my best efforts to prevent that from happening. I feel I ought to do something about this whole situation, but I'm just not sure what to do ha-ha.<p>

Also, my apologies for the late update, once again, LOL. First my computer died, and then my internet, and then I was getting ready for school. As it is, now I am at school. Had my first day back today (Sept 7, just in case I don't end up updating today ha-ha,) ...and what an adventure that was. My chemistry professor drove into class on his motorcycle. Yes he did. The student body applauded when he took his helmet off. It's my new favourite class to say the least ;P

As well, to those of you who review, who I cannot reply to for whatever reason (say for instance privacy settings or whatever,) thank you so much, and I appreciate it :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>Monday January 1, 2007<strong>

_I felt my skin grow cold and clammy and my breath was coming in short, shallow bursts. I felt my blood start to boil and I honestly began to see red. My mouth contorted into a vicious snarl and I curled my hands into tight fists; my long nails digging into my skin. A high pitched static tone started in my ears and I tasted bile in my mouth. Worst of all, I felt hot, stinging tears behind my eyes; but I wouldn't dare give anyone the satisfaction of letting them fall. I tried to tell myself that this kind of reaction was just ridiculous. I tried to tell myself that I ought to be rational and sensible and use logic to dictate my life, not emotions. I tried to tell myself a lot of things, but none of them got through, there was too much adrenaline in my blood, and I was in the 'fight of flight' mode... I was leaning towards the 'fight' option as it was._

"_I'm so sorry Jewel," Matt said coming up behind me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me around so that I would look at him._

"What... what happened?" I whined. It was so undignified but I couldn't help it.

"I don't know what to tell you kid. Catlin came to our room this morning, Mello got up to answer it, they talked quietly for a second, and then Mello got furious about something. But it could have been anything right, knowing him. Before I knew it they'd left together. I'm sorry Gem, I don't know what happened really." Matt pulled me into a pitying hug as I fought back my tears.

Last night had been so perfect. What could have possibly changed in the past nine hours that would cause Mello to blatantly stab me in the back... no, not in the back, in the HEART?

Suddenly Caitlin caught me staring at her and an evil smile played on the corners of her lips. She said something incomprehensible to Mello and he turned to face Matt and me as well. Matt still had his arms around me and I was sure I still held an expression of absolute betrayal and pain. Mello's expression went from unreadable to rage in half a second, and he stormed off in the opposite direction. Caitlin on the other hand, came walking over to us.

"I warned you didn't I? I told you to stay away from him, but you just didn't listen. I saw the two of you last night, in the detention room," she added as though I wouldn't have remembered. So it had been her who had opened the door. "You brought this on yourself you know," she snickered and turned to go after Mello.

Once she was out of sight I turned back to Matt. "I get that she's mad at me," I all but whimpered, "but, but why is he with her? Why would he do that to me?" When I received no answer from Matt I continued, "Does she have something on him? Like blackmail?"

"Maybe I just don't want to be with you? Did you ever think of that? And why would I want to be with you if you're going to be such a cry baby anyway?" Mello said appearing in the hallway behind us. He must have circled around the cafeteria and come out the other side.

I snarled but did my best to pretended his words hadn't hurt me, and straightened myself up. I backed away from Matt's comforting hug and pushed my glasses further up my nose to give my hands something to do. "Well then, if that's the way you feel," I walked away as calmly as I could fake. Once I was back in my room, I took my newly acquired scarf off of my desk where I had laid it with such care the night before, and stormed into the hallway. I took long, deliberate strides to Matt's and Mello's room and without knocking I let myself in; I knew neither of them was there anyway.

I scrunched up the scarf and threw it on Mello's bed with all the force I could muster. However, because the fabric of the scarf was so light and delicate, it caused my attempt to resemble trying throwing a sheet of paper. The scarf ended up twisting and turning, and eventually it came to rest on the floor. It didn't matter though, I had made my point.

* * *

><p>I made my way back to my room and made sure to close and lock the door behind me. Then I sat on my bed and stared at the wall. I made a game of it to distract myself. For the next hour I spent my time focusing at different distances between the wall and myself. If I focused my eyes midrange, I could see the motes of dust which were illuminated by the light coming in through my window. If I focused closer to the wall I could see my desk and the few sparse papers I had left there that held no inherent importance.<p>

A knock on my door brought me out of my self-indulgent game.

"Come hang out with me, you know you want to." I pursed my lips, angled my eyebrows and shook my head. I could hear the smile on Matt's face. That guy was absolutely resilient.

I got up off my very comfortable bed and decided that I probably should open the door. Big mistake.

"It's cold outside, you might need this," Matt held up the black scarf I had thrown into his double room.

I slammed my door in his face.

I, was not so resilient.

* * *

><p>I figured that I really ought to get out of my room though. Sitting in there and feeling sorry for myself wasn't going to get anyone anywhere. I could still hear Matt outside my door so I decided to climb out my window. I was only on the second floor, and the way the building was engineered made it entirely possible. There were little footholds and handholds all over the walls. I made it to the ground in a snap.<p>

Matt had been right; it was exceptionally chilly outside. Not to the degree that I needed a scarf however, no, it wasn't that cold. I realised I'd forgotten my coat too, so I decided to let myself back into the building.

The dark wooden walls and floors were brightly lit with all the afternoon sunlight coming in through all the windows. The school was in a total contrast to how it had been when I had first arrived. Everything had been so dark and gloomy, what with the rain that day; but the skies today were a brilliant aquamarine.

I realised sadly though, that even though the school was bright and cheery, I wasn't. I was in the same dismal mood I had been in when I first came to Wammy's. The first day it had been because of the lost of my parents, today it was because of the loss of someone else that I loved.

I sighed as I sulked down the hallways, past offices and classrooms. I kept walking until I happened past Roger's office and heard, "...but that's impossible. Are you sure it was Kira?"

I had heard the name 'Kira' before. I was sure the whole world had heard the name 'Kira' by now, assuming no one was living in caves, or had no access to civilization whatsoever.

"What does L think about that? Is he sure that Naomi Misora didn't just commit suicide?"

Telephone call. It was hard to figure out what was happening by only listening to one side of the conversation, but not impossible.

"Ah, well I suppose I have to agree with him there. That's why he's L after all." Another long pause, before Roger continued with, "He wants what! Well that's just absurd! She's not ready for something like that! I'm sure Mello would be more than happy to..." Now my attention was thoroughly engaged. "Well maybe even Near...?" Now they were talking about my brother? What was going on? Roger's tone had gone from casual to agitated in all of two sentences. "Even Linda... Why does he want one of them anyway?" I sure wish I knew what was going on. "Well alright I'll tell her. Why he picked her I'll never know, but it's not my call. When does he want her there?" Was someone leaving? I hoped it was Caitlin. "A month from today? Alright. Goodbye."

After I heard that I decided it was best to move along. The last thing I needed was to be caught eavesdropping. I skirted around the closest corner and disappeared just as I heard Roger's door open.

* * *

><p>I went for an aimless walk through the halls for a while. I'd just finished my third lap around the science wing and decided I'd head out towards the gym, when my stomach started growling. The nausea I had suffered earlier in the morning was no longer plaguing me, so I felt that I might as well try and dig up some leftovers from breakfast in the cafeteria.<p>

I walked straight in and up to the counter where the portly, hairnet wearing, server was stationed. She was an older lady, but probably not as old as she looked; she was aged prematurely with years of looking over rambunctious kids. Matt had said she had been here since Wammy's opened. The woman had wiry gray hair, and skin that would give elephants a run for their money when it came to wrinkles. She was peeling long carrots for what looked to be a salad for lunch. I asked her politely if I might have something to eat and she shot me a look of intense displeasure; probably because lunch would be served soon, probably because the students were supposed to eat at their preset times and probably because it would mean more work for her.

She did stop peeling carrots though and jerked her thumb towards the swinging door that separated the kitchen from the dining area. Through the door I could see a tray of toast from the morning. It was probably being left out so that they could turn it into croutons later. I'd seen the cooks do that before, almost nothing was wasted here.

I silently removed two pieces of toast from the tray and skirted out of the cafeteria. I'd barely made it out of the doors when I bumped into a ghost coloured figure... assuming ghosts were white like they appeared in books, and were not actually transparent.

"Near," I said surprised. I hadn't been expecting to bump into him. Granted I'd more or less forgotten about him altogether in light of the recent events in my life.

"Jewel," he replied stoically.

"What's up Near? What do you want?"

"Roger's looking for you."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>And today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D

I'm debating my next set of FanFics... AGAIN, LOL. I already know that I'm going to do a Gaara canon, and a Beyond Birthday Fic for sure. L's going to get his own Canon as well. And as I mentioned before I'm down for a 'Chocolate and Bubblegum' Sequel. It seems to be a growing consensus that Mello and Matt didn't die, and they're alive out there for Jewel to run into again ;P ...but the other's I'm going to let you vote for :)

Fruits Basket: Kyo x Tohru.  
>I'm sure that I'm not the only one that finds Tohru a little annoying, but instead of replacing her completely with an OC (because I just can't make myself write a FanFic about a person with an OC when they already have a perfect match out there,) I'm want to make her character more personally agreeable. It probably would be a canon.<p>

InuYasha: Sesshomaru x OC.  
>'Nuff said ha-ha. Probably wouldn't be a canon, but I'm going to keep it realistic as far as the series goes.<p>

Naruto: Kakashi x OC.  
>Basically a story about Kakashi's life before he started leading squad 7. Non-canon for sure.<p>

Pokémon Fic. Now, I really want to write a Pokémon FanFic. I've had the story all planned out since I was like 10 ha-ha. And I just love Pokémon. The only problem is, that I'd want to make it a love story as well, because that's what I write, but who would I have fall in love? It would be my OC for sure, but then what? I just don't feel an OC x Ash happening, or Brock for that matter. So who? 'Would I have to create another OC?' is the question... Ideas?

Avatar: The Last Air-Bender: Zuko x OC.  
>Canon.<p>

Uh, I guess that's it for the choices. I probably would do all of them at some point, but if anybody has any preferences as to what they'd rather read first, let me know.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **Three chapters and I'm still on the same date? It's still January 1st ha-ha. I think I see a problem here, I think I ought to move it along eh?

So, WOW! Votes were ALL over the board on my next FanFic. So surprised, I didn't expect that; I am quite pleased with the results though :)

Anyway, I might take a little longer to update these next weeks. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, 'She's going to take longer? Is that even possible?' Well I guess we'll see ha-ha. School is in full swing now and I have some projects coming up. Man I hate projects . Except, one assignment that I got today that promises at the very least to be slightly interesting :) I'm in a creative writing class now (the other day I COMPLETELY overhauled my class schedule,) and our first assignment is to write an 8-15 page stage play; like Shakespeare or Arthur Miller. It should prove to be a bit of a challenge though; I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to write about. I mean, I have a BASIC idea, and a starting point, but I need a point, I need a theme, I need a climax and all that junk ha-ha. So far it's like Seinfeld, 'The show that's famously about nothing,' if you will.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><em>I'd barely made it out of the cafeteria doors when I bumped into a ghost coloured figure... assuming ghosts were white like they appeared in picture books, and were not actually transparent.<em>

"_Near," I said surprised. I hadn't been expecting to bump into him. Granted I'd more or less forgotten about him altogether in light of the recent events in my life._

"_Jewel," he replied stoically._

"_What's up Near? What do you want?"_

"_Roger's looking for you."_

"Roger's looking for me? Why?"

"It isn't any of my business why." No, of course not, I thought sarcastically.

I debated how much trouble I was in on my way to his office. Maybe he knew I was listening outside of his office earlier. Maybe the lunch lady had told him about my detour through the cafeteria... no, that one didn't make any sense, I had just walked out of there. Maybe someone had reported me climbing down the wall from my room; the most likely choice seemed to be this one. Roger could have somehow found out about Mello and I in detention the other night. Matt wouldn't have told him, but I was pretty sure Caitlin might've. Granted, she probably wouldn't want to get Mello in trouble... was that what she had over him? I know Mello had said that he just didn't like me, and the fact remained that he hated Near, so why couldn't he hate me too? But I refused to believe that...

"Jewel!"

"Ahh," I shuddered. I hadn't been paying attention to anything other than my own thoughts but my feet had still carried me to Roger's door of their own accord. I regained my composure instantaneously and said, "Uh, yes, sorry sir. What can I do for you?"

"Close the door please."

I closed the heavy oak door behind me and Roger gestured for me to take a seat in one of the two, dark red leather arm chairs in front of his desk. I no sooner took my seat than Roger's phone started to ring.

Roger scrunched up his already wrinkly face, and made a grumbling noise at having been interrupted. "One moment Jewel, please," he added the 'please' as an afterthought; as though I wasn't totally worth the 'please' but at the same time it was part of his practice to bestow good manners on everyone.

I sighed quietly and sat back.

"Yes?" Roger said into the mouth piece. "You're not serious?" There was a long pause as Roger waited for whoever was on the other end to explain something. I could only barely make out the muffled noise of a voice in the silence of the room. "Well this is getting to be a little too dangerous, don't you think?" A short pause before Roger said, "I know it's his call, but Misora was one of the best, and if even she was..." Roger looked up from his call and to me. It was as if he was debating going on, maybe there was something I wasn't supposed to hear, wasn't supposed to know about. "...And is L sure Kira was responsible?" Roger finally continued. There is was, 'Kira' again. "Don't you think there's a little too much personal interest for her now?" Another pause and I took this opportunity to glance around the office. Not much, if anything had changed since the last time I had been in here. There was an abundance of books on shelves against the walls and a small area rug on the floor. "I know she doesn't have to know, of course I was going to keep that quiet, but still..." I pretended not to hear what Roger was saying. "Alright, thank you," Roger hung up the phone.

I politely turned back to Roger and waited for him to say something.

"L has requested your presence on the Kira case," he said bluntly. I inhaled hard and I almost choked on my own spit.

"W-what?" I coughed. Had it been me that Roger had been talking about in his office this morning?

"Yes," Roger started all nasally, as though the idea was far beneath him; which in his eyes, it probably was. "Watari called me today, he said that L is requesting your presence on the case. You'll be leaving for Japan in one month from today."

ONE MONTH! Did I get a say in this? What if I didn't want to leave, what if I wanted to stay here?

Then I thought about how Caitlin and Mello were all over each other and decided that maybe I didn't want to stay here that long after all.

"What!" I repeated.

"Yes," Roger said again, growing bored with the fact that I was all but in shock. "One month from today you will board a plane to Japan." Roger gave me a look out of the corner of his eyes, "Unless of course, you don't want to go?" The way he said it implied that I would be the biggest idiot and the worst ingrate on the planet if I did not accept his offer. No pressure. I just nodded in response. "Okay, good. You will get more instructions and information when you get there. I am not authorised to discuss this further with you. You may go."

I stood up and turned for the door. "Oh wait, I forgot to mention," Roger cut in as my handed rested on the door knob. "As you may or may not know, we've finished renovating the girl's dormitory wing. I know you're leaving soon anyway, but we plan to start renovating the boy's dormitory wing right away and it would be advantageous to us all if you would move your belongings to your respective wing. We have a room all set up for you. You'll even have a roommate. Her name is Linda." Great, like that was supposed to be an incentive? The lack of privacy? At least her name wasn't 'Caitlin.' "I'll give you one week to get all your belongings together. I'll have Linda sent up to your room. I imagine it would be in your best interest to get to know her before you two move in together. You could even have lunch together," Roger checked his watch. "It's just about that time."

"Sure," I said quietly and shuffled up to my room.

* * *

><p>"What's wrong Gem?" Matt poked his head into my door twenty minutes later.<p>

"Oh it's you," I said surprised. I of course had been expecting Linda. I'd seen her around. Even talked to her casually from time to time, but I didn't really know her any more than that.

"Well that's a nice greeting."

"I just wasn't expecting you."

"You were you expecting?" Matt looked around worriedly, like he might be interrupting a secret rendez vous.

"Linda, she's coming to..." I paused midsentence as an idea hit me in the head, "...she's coming to help me with a question on my homework, and then we're going to go to lunch."

"Oh, I didn't know you were friends with her."

"I'm not, not really. But since..." I specifically emphasized that I wasn't going to finish that sentence, "...Well I just thought it'd be a good idea to make some friends before..." That's it Jewel, make him curious.

"What are you talking about? What's going on?"

"It's nothing Matt, it's not important."

"I'm serious Gem, what's going on?"

"I'm leaving Matt... In a week." It wasn't a lie!

"IN A WEEK!" Matt shouted. I waved my hands in front of his face to tell him to be quiet. "W-why! No you can't!" Matt dramatically threw his arms around me.

"M-Matt," I coughed, he was squeezing the air out of me. "Apparently I can, I'm going to work for L."

"You're... going to work for L?"

"Apparently."

"Why?" Matt released me from his grip and gave me one of the most confounded expressions I'd ever seen on anybody, let alone someone as smart as he was.

"The hell should I know?" I answered coolly and shrugged.

"Yeah but..."

"Apparently L wants me to get some hands-on work or something. Practical application of what I've learned if you will."

"Yeah but, why you?" he asked plainly.

"Gee thanks," I rolled my eyes at him.

"I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," I sighed. There was a small pause between us and then I said slyly, "You won't tell anyone will you Matt? I don't want it made into a big thing." I waited for my subtle suggestion to sink in and then said, "I'm serious Matt, don't tell anyone you don't have to." Ahh, the irresistible bait. I was dangling it in front of him like a fish. He wouldn't tell anyone... no one but Mello that is; I bet myself ten dollars. A little 'social experiment' of my own.

"Hello? Am I interrupting something?" A small, quiet, but kind sounding voice rose up from my doorway.

"Ahh, Linda!" For a second I almost completely forgot about her. I had to get her away from Matt before she said anything that would contradict my story. "Hey Linda," I said trying desperately to disguise the urgency in my voice, "why don't you go get us a table at the cafeteria? I'm just finishing up some things here. I'll meet you down there.

"Oh, uh, okay?" she looked kind of winded but turned obediently and went down to get us a table.

"What was that?" Matt asked after he heard her footsteps descend down the stairs.

"I don't want Linda to know I'm leaving," I thought quickly, "she might act differently if she knew. I don't want that. I already had to deal with a week of people giving me 'the look' because of my accident at the river."

"Oh, you know they built up the railing on that thing?" Matt asked off topic.

"Uh, yeah. But no seriously, don't talk about it with her. Okay?"

"Yeah sure, whatever."

I got up to follow Linda down to the cafeteria, "And oh Matt, I'm going to need your help with something later."

"What sort of something?"

"I need you to show me how to use those discs."

"Discs?"

"The ones you gave me for Christmas. I need to get into the school's mainframe. There's something I need to find out. There's something I need to know Matt." There was something Roger wasn't telling me.

I recalled his earlier telephone conversation with whoever else had been on the line. 'A_nd is L sure Kira was responsible?... Don't you think there's a little too much personal interest for her now?... I know she doesn't have to know, of course I was going to keep that quiet, but still..._' And then I remembered the look he shot me after he hung up. There was definitely something he was hiding from me.

* * *

><p>I booked it down to the cafeteria with Matt trailing behind me. I didn't expect him to sit with Linda and I, but I did suspect that, like the rest of the student body, he was hungry.<p>

He left my side when we walked in the doors and went to get his food. I found Linda sitting at a table in the middle of the room by herself. She already had a plate of food in front of her. Spaghetti today.

"What was that?" she asked me when I approached, just like Matt had.

"Matt was just helping me with a problem," I hope.

"Oh, cool. So hey, I hear you're going to be moving in with me. We're going to be roomies," she shot me a wide, exaggerated smile, but it seemed sincere enough. "We're right above Roger's office you know. It's pretty funny. You can hear almost everything that goes on in there," she chuckled like she knew a scandalous secret. "So when do you want to move in?" she asked me.

"One week from today." I answered.

We sat for a while longer in the cafeteria. No one came over to bother us, and made sure not to make a scene when Mello walked in the cafeteria arm in arm with Caitlin. Thankfully Linda and I left soon after that and she showed me her room. Soon to be 'our' room; for about three weeks.

It was an exact replica of Matt's and Mello's room; as far as layout and furniture went at least. It was much cleaner and filled with things like teddy bears and hair accessories instead of videogames. The curtains were a softer colour and there was a small area rug on the floor. Her textbooks were stacked neatly on top of her desk and it appeared to me as though everything she owned was perfectly immaculate. She was a Type A for sure, but then you couldn't really not be Type A at Wammy's. Unless of course your name was 'Matt.' He seemed to be a genuine exception to the rule. But then Mello was Type A enough for the both of them.

"Nice place you've got here," I mumbled casually.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I just realised! Chapter 13... Ooh, bad luck :P Maybe that's why it took me so long to write ;P Or why this chapter was so boring... I tried to make it interesting. I really did. The next one should be more... more... I don't know, just more ;P

But hey guys, I have a proposition for you! I know I should've been using my free time to work on this chapter (it has taken me so epic-ly long to update this one and it isn't even that long! I feel terrible,) but I took the time to write the first chapter/prologue to my next story! :D :D Yes that's right! It is written! So now, the proposition is:  
>Do you guys want me to upload it?<br>I know I'm not done this Fic yet, but I was thinking, maybe I just upload the first chapter; as like, a teaser ;P What do you guys think? Yay? Neigh? I personally happen to think it's one of my best chapters in the Fic's yet! Yeah, that's right. So let me know :)

Also, sorry for not having replied to all my messages and reviews. I promise first thing in the morning! :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: **I have the most terrible news of my existence! D: I think... I think... I think my iPod is broken! NOO! ...Now, some of you are breathing sighs of relief because I really had you guys freaked out there for a second, and the rest of you are like me and pitching a fit. Those of you who are pitching a fit know just how important music is to the life of a creative genius. Ha-ha yeah I'm kidding; but not about how much I need music to survive. Buuut enough about that. I still have a functioning iTunes and YouTube still works so yeah.

Okay! On to the chapter!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it - Well, this is getting more than a little repetitive eh? I wonder if there's something I can do to spice it up...? Not that you guys read the disclaimer anyway, but still. Heck, I'd be surprised if you all still read my long and pointless author's notes ha-ha.

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><p>I waited for a couple of days of Mello and Caitlin being all but glued to each other, and then decided that I wanted to up the ante in the little wager I had with myself about Mello and Matt and my not so little secret. I was going to put more on the table. I was going to tease the player. The number one way to make somebody want something, is to make sure that they can't have it. That's why I waited until I knew both Matt and Mello would be in their room before I crept over.<p>

I knocked softly on their door later in the evening; once, twice. I opened the door a crack and peaked my head in. Mello looked like he was gathering his books together to go down to the library. All this time I thought Mello went down there to have easy access to any books he might need, but I instantly revised that theory when I saw Matt sitting on the floor playing video games. Quiet, but frequent pinging noises were emanating from his handheld device. It would be enough to drive any person crazy, let alone a person who was trying to study.

I wouldn't be bothered with that now though, I wasn't here for Mello... well, I wasn't here mostly for Mello. Showing up was all part of the tease certainly, but I had a legitimate reason to be there. "Matt," I called quietly and he looked up from his game. The pinging stopped and from the corner of my peripheral vision I saw Mello's head turn a fraction of an inch in my direction; it was almost imperceptible, but it was there. "Matt," I said again, "will you help me with something? That thing we talked about before?" I felt Mello stiffen with curiosity. Whether or not he wanted to be with me, he was most definitely still taking at least a hair of an interest in my life.

"Yeah sure," Matt answered casually after a second, and hauled himself up off the floor.

I waited until Matt was close and then I turned and let him follow me out of the room. I felt Mello burning holes in my back the whole way back to my room.

I dug the discs Matt had given me for Christmas out from my dresser drawer.

"What's this all about?" Matt asked, attempting to get some background information on my request before he helped me hack the school. Not that it would make much of a difference I assumed, but he might as well know what was going on.

"I overheard a phone conversation Roger had with someone yesterday. It sounded like it was about me." Maybe that was being a little egotistical, but I had to be sure.

"Yeah? So what?"

"I don't know for sure, but it's something Roger doesn't want me to know, and at the very least I want to know why he doesn't want me to know... you know?"

"I know."

Matt took the discs from my hand and went over to the computer on my desk. He wasted no time booting it up and clicking on windows and dialogue boxes at every turn. "Okay, come here and watch a master."

"Yes sir Mr. Kenobi," I teased. He was the one who had brought up 'masters' after all; he didn't specify what kind.

I skipped lightly over to him and watched over his shoulder. He took the top disc from the stack and slid it in to the CD tray on the side. Nothing happened for a second and then the machine whirred and buzzed and a dialogue box popped up on the screen.

"Alright, here's the thing. Because this computer is linked to the mainframe at the school it won't be hard at all to hack Roger's main office computer. You know," Matt started off on a side rant, "for a guy who works at a school with geniuses he sure isn't too worried about his computer security. Kids like me try and hack his account just for fun around here, just because we can. You think he'd up his security or some..."

"Matt!" I snapped sharply.

"Oh, oh, yeah right. Okay, I designed this computer software right. It's something of a virus. It'll automatically link your computer to the mainframe that you're using. Most computers won't do that on their own, most computers need administrative consent, if you will, before the mainframe will allow the computer access. This program I created is designed to bypass all the administrative security. Basically it's like," he seemed to consider the best analogy for a moment, "it's like, a backdoor, one that someone forgot to lock. You could try and struggle your way in via the locked front door, but why not just go around to the back."

"Okay, sure. I get it."

"The other's I'll show you some other time." Then Matt paused, he seemed to realise that there may not be 'another time' if I was leaving in a week. He shook off the thought though and continued, "Alright, we're in. What am I looking for?"

"I don't know. My file? Something about me? It's got to be something recent. They were just talking about it the other day."

Matt scrolled and clicked and typed and no more than five minutes later he came up with a result. There were pages of writing in front of him and what looked to be a scan of a newspaper article. Matt sped read through the whole thing and then said, "Listen up. 'New evidence has arisen in the case of the mysterious fire that left two children orphaned back in November of last year,'" he quoted. I wanted to ask 'What new evidence?' but I had a feeling Matt was getting to that. "'The fire is believed to have been set purposely by serial arsonist who was captured and then released from prison in early November. However, as he was awaiting his hearing he died one night from a mysterious heart attack. Rumours are speculating that this was the work of the person who has come to be known as 'Kira', however, local police refuse to comment on the issue.'" I was speechless. "It just goes on from there," Matt said, "but that's the gist of it."

I was most definitely speechless. I tried to make words and sounds but my mouth only opened and closed in vain until I managed, "But, they told us the fire was accidental."

"I guess they got new information since then," Matt answered, a hint of sympathy in his voice.

"Why didn't they tell us?"

Matt just shrugged. "Could be they just didn't want to drag this out. I mean one, this guy might've not been guilty, and why work you or Near up over this anyway? it isn't as though either of you could do anything about it now."

"That's not the point, they should have told us," I felt so unbelievably betrayed and deceived. There was something more there too. A growing hatred was growing like a fire inside of me. Some man had killed my parents; some man had killed my parents for kicks. This man had torn my family apart; this man had caused me no end of trouble and discomfort. It was because of this man I had lost my family, lost all but everything I owned; I'd had to move, start a new school, I was put under so much pressure and he was ultimately why I lost my eyesight. By the time I had thought everything through I was furious. I had suffered so much because of him, who was going to make sure he suffered?

"I agree, but whatcha gonna do?" Matt said, totally unaware of my sudden mood shift. Besides," he continued, "it looks like this guy is dead now anyway." Matt tapped a few more keys on the computer and another screen popped up and I stared down at it. It was another article, one focusing on Kira.

I read through the article over Matt's shoulder. It went on and on about how Kira had killed many criminals, and about how the victims of those criminals were all praising Kira as their god. They had all been in the same position I was in now, they were all angry at the criminals who had come in and disrupted their lives, they were all so angry that the people who were accused of the crimes again were not being severely punished. And then Kira had stepped in, Kira had punished the criminals and become the victims' saviour; Kira was their hero because of what he had done.

I found myself wondering if I felt that same way too. Was I happy because Kira had killed the man suspected of killing my parents? Did I look up to Kira as my saviour? The arsonist had been punished; how did I feel about that?

"Earth to Jewel," Matt's voice suddenly broke though.

"Huh?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for five minutes, way to zone out there."

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry."

Matt gave me a scrutinizing glance, like he was trying to figure out if I had hit my head without him noticing. "'Kay, well if that's everything you wanted."

"Uh, yeah Matt, thanks. A lot."

"Sure thing," he stood up from my desk. "You going to be okay?" he asked me.

"Sure Matt," I threw my most convincing smile at him. I wasn't really sure if he bought it or not, but he said goodnight and left anyway. I shuffled over to my bed and sat on the edge.

* * *

><p>I didn't sleep that night.<p>

Thoughts raced over and over in my head; all the same thoughts, all in the same order. My parents had died; they couldn't have been saved. My parents had been murdered; it hadn't been an accident. The criminal who killed my parents was dead; he had been killed by Kira. Kira was killing many criminals; Kira was viewed to be a saviour. My parents had died; they couldn't have been saved. My parents had been murdered; it hadn't been an accident. The criminal who killed my parents was dead; he had been killed by Kira. Kira was killing many criminals; Kira was viewed to be a saviour. There was something wrong with my thought process, I could tell. There was something that I was missing, something that I couldn't get past and I didn't know what it was or why I couldn't see it.

When a house is as silent as a grave, even the slightest of noises sounds like a bomb going off. I was jarred out of my circular thoughts at four AM when a soft knock, a soft knock that sounded like a hand grenade, came from my door.

"Hello," Linda peaked her head in.

"Oh, hey," I tried not to sound disappointed. "What's up?"

"The two of us I suppose," she joked. I faked a small smile. "What are you doing awake at this hour?" she asked me.

"Just couldn't sleep," I shrugged casually. She nodded and then something occurred to me, "What are you doing awake at this hour?" I asked her back.

"I was just on my way to the washroom," she answered, "I saw the light under your window and thought that I ought to investigate," she smiled at me again.

That made sense. A person who climbed the stairs to the second floor could make a choice, they could go left, or they could go right. To the left was the girls' wing and to the right was the boys'. The two wings were really just one long hallway, divided by the stairs and nothing else. Her story made sense.

"So man, you're going to be moving in with me tomorrow eh?" she pointed out. I thought about it and realised that since it was four in the morning, and that was technically the start of a new day, that she was in fact correct.

"Yeah I guess I am."

"You haven't packed at all. Do you want a hand?" she asked hesitantly, as though I might take her up on her offer this second and make her pack with me in the middle of the night.

"Sure," I started, "but in the morning how about?" I chuckled lightly.

She smiled sweetly at me, "Sure, see you tomorrow; or rather, in a couple hours I guess," she laughed and left my room.

I decided that if I was going to be packing tomorrow I might as well get some sleep. I'd worry about the Kira thing some other time. 'No reason to lose sleep over it,' I told myself and chuckled wryly at the irony. I was about to get up to turn the light off when there was another knock at my door.

I opened it before the last knock hit the wood and almost came face to fist with a, well a fist. Mello's hand was extended mid air where the middle of my door had once been and where my face now was.

"What do you want?" I asked. I'm sure I sounded more surprised than he was. His hand was still hovering in the air and the look on Mello's face told me that he may or may not suspect me of having psychic powers.

"You should really get some sleep," he muttered, shaking of the surprise at having the door open before he had even finished knocking.

'You're one to talk,' I thought to myself, but responded dryly with, "Yeah I was just about to."

"What are you doing up so late?" I may have just wanted to hear it, but I could've sworn there was a hint of concern in his voice.

"Well isn't that interesting," I said with mock interest, "there's something that Mello doesn't know."

"Jeeze, I was just asking," he turned around to leave.

"Mello," I shouted frantically and yet quietly because it was still the middle of the night.

When he turned back towards me his expression was rife with disinterest. Maybe Matt hadn't told Mello that I was leaving after all. Maybe Matt had stuck to his promise, and was no longer the co-conspirator I had labelled him as. I thought back to how it had probably been sort of mean of me to lie to Matt in the first place. "Well, what do you want?" he asked when I didn't say anything else.

"Nothing," I said bitterly and closed the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Linda and I had everything packed by five. It hadn't been a challenge. I didn't have a whole lot to pack up and I was only moving down the hall after all. I supposed that when I left to work with L I would have to take a little more care and consideration as to what and how I would pack, but as it was I only had two suitcases and two boxes total.<p>

Linda had told me that she was already for me and so we had decided that I would just move in now and not have to worry about it the next day.

"Alright, let's get moving," Linda cheered happily. She seemed to be genuinely pleased that I would be her roommate. She and I each took one suitcase and one box and I closed the door that was no longer mine.

"Jewel!" I heard a frantic shout from down the hallway.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Hey :D LOL. Okay, so the general consensus seems to be that I upload the first chapter of my next Fic; The Sequel, one. Now, I think I'm going to do it :) If you don't want to read it until I finish this one that's perfectly cool. And nobody worry, I'm not going to try and write both Fic's at the same time. I'm going to upload the first chapter and then just leave it until I finish writing this one. Sound cool everyone? Okay good ;P But there is one thing. I wrote the first chapter right, well it's something like 5,000 words! My usual is around 3,000. That's almost double! So, here's the situation:

I was debating THREE possibilities...

1. I could upload the chapter as is, 5000 words and all.  
>Advantage: It's the whole chapter as I intended it to be read.<br>Disadvantage: It'd be a long read.

2. I could upload the chapter in two broken up parts.  
>Advantage: It's a much shorter and less drawn out read.<br>Disadvantage: I've more or less decided where I would break the one chapter into two, and it turns out that the first bit is not the least bit exciting, and the second part has all the action. And I said I would only update one chapter; this would be uploading two.

3. I could make a few adjustments just for this one upload. I could cut some of the beginning 'lead-in' and make it shorter.  
>Advantage: The reader gets the exciting chapter that I promised, and I could always upload the 'lead-in' when I decided to officially start working on the sequel.<br>Disadvantage: ?

Hmm... you know what? Writing it out like that made my options a bit more clear to me. I think I'm going to go with number three. Yeah? Yeah, I think I'll go with that one.

Ha-ha, thanks guys for all of you who took the time to read all that. But you can all still voice your opinion if you want :) Freedom of speech and all that :P


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: **Man, you guys don't waste any time in reviewing eh? I posted the last chapter and within fifteen minutes I had like five reviews ha-ha ^_^ And they were so intense too, I was killing myself for a half hour laughing :'D

Alright, for those of you who are still concerned, my iPod is fine... but my headphones got smashed the other day -_-* I am just not having any luck. I do have replacements, but the headphones that broke were like, super high quality and as soon as I swapped them for my replacements well, let's just say it was like going from a live concert of your favourite band to karaoke night :/

But whatevs, there are more pressing matters! Now, pay attention: As it stands I am thinking a total of 19 chapters. I'm just planning it all out in my head you know, everything that's coming next. Maybe an epilogue, maybe the epilogue will be included in the 19. But just to give you guys an estimate, I'm going for 19 :)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p><em>Linda and I had everything packed by five. It hadn't been a challenge. I didn't have a whole lot to pack up and I was only moving down the hall after all. I supposed that when I left to work with L I would have to take a little more care and consideration as to what and how I would pack, but as it was I only had two suitcases and two boxes total.<em>

_Linda had told me that she was already for me and so we had decided that I would just move in now and not have to worry about it the next day._

"_Alright, let's get moving," Linda cheered happily. She seemed to be genuinely pleased that I would be her roommate. She and I each took one suitcase and one box and I closed the door that was no longer mine._

"_Jewel!" I heard a frantic shout from down the hallway._

Linda and I both turned and found Mello and Matt staring down the hallway at the both of us. Matt was leaning out of his and Mello's doorway and Mello was standing in, what I judged to be, the exact center of the hall.

The four of us stood facing off for a moment and with each passing second the temperature in the corridor seemed to be getting lower and lower. A door opened and closed directly behind Linda and I, there was a pause and then quiet shuffling and I knew without a doubt that it was Near who was ghosting around out of my sight.

Finally I sighed and asked coolly, "Something I can help you with?" I wanted to cross my arms over my chest, but I would have to put down the box and suitcase I was carrying first.

Mello stayed silent for another minute, debating on how he was going to go about asking me the inevitable question. I stole a glance at Matt while I was waiting for Mello to say something and found that Matt looked sincerely upset. I decided it had been unnecessarily mean for me to not tell him the truth.

I looked back to Mello, his expression had changed from confused worry to angry frustration in a matter of seconds. It appeared he was warring with himself on whether to say anything at all.

"What do you want Mello? Just spit it out!" my voice sounded cold and hard but inside I was shaking with anticipation. Was this it? Was my plan working? Or was this all related to something else entirely. I really hoped it wasn't the later, I didn't know how much more disappointment I could take before could be legally classified as insane.

"Are you, leaving?" he asked finally.

I jerked my head a fraction of an inch towards Matt; a deliberate attempt on my part to silently confirm to Mello that the information he had gotten from his friend was factual.

"You're not supposed to be leaving until tomorrow!" Matt cut in from the doorway.

"Leaving?" Linda chuckled.

'Uh oh, can't let her say anything more,' I thought to myself and quickly came back with, "I'm leaving in three weeks. It was moved forward, but I have to move in with Linda this week."

Linda spun to face me, "You're leaving!" a small frown began to grow on her face.

"Yeah, in three weeks," I sighed and shrugged, dropping my suitcase and box lightly to the floor. I really didn't know how I felt about going to work with L. I mean of course I was flattered he had chosen me, and there wasn't really anything for me here, but still...

"Listen, I..." Mello started, three sets of eyes turned to look at him, "I'm... Ah forget it, it doesn't matter," he stomped off towards his doorway.

"Mello!" I called angrily before he could duck inside his room. I was so sick of this. It was his stupid pride that wouldn't let him talk to me and I knew it.

Mello rested his left hand on the doorframe and his right he balled into a fist. "Jeeze, I did it for you, you know," he said without looking at me. "Excuse me for not wanting to see anything bad happen to you," he said it sarcastically, but there was truth and sincerity behind his words anyway.

"What are you talking about Mello?" I asked the way a mother might ask a small child who was rambling and not making any sense.

"Caitlin."

"What about her?" I coaxed further.

"She said you'd get hurt if you didn't stay away from me." Of course she'd have had something to do with this. "You weren't even allowed to talk to me, so I had to make sure you didn't want to talk to me. I had to make sure you stayed away from me... But I, I couldn't let you leave without knowing that. I had to tell you, I couldn't let you leave hating me. Not that I care personally, it was just for your sake you know," Mello's defensive tone rose on the last sentence and something told me it wasn't just for my sake that he didn't want me to hate him.

Then suddenly Matt caught my eye. He was shooting me the most self-important smile I'd ever seen. He looked quite pleased with himself, and I couldn't figure out why at first. And then it hit me. Matt, he had known my plan the whole time. I hadn't fooled him with my coy suggestions for a second. He knew I wanted him to tell Mello, and he had. I smiled and shook my head at him; that crazy idiot had to be the coolest person I knew. I rolled my eyes and mouthed, 'Thanks.'

"You could've just told me," I said, turning back to Mello.

"Didn't you just hear me, no I couldn't."

"You think I'm afraid of that cow?"

"You're afraid of fire, she said that if you weren't careful that would come into play."

"Sure I'm afraid of fire, but what's she going to do? Burn the school down? Not even Caitlin is THAT crazy."

There was a short silent pause before Matt said jokingly, "She could be," and we all started laughing, lightening the mood.

"So now what?" Linda asked after we all finished chuckling.

It was a good question. 'Now what?' What were we going to do? Now, in the moment, later, about Caitlin...?

"Right now I suppose I finish moving into your room. Might as well," I shrugged.

"And then?" Mello asked quietly.

"Then," I sighed, "we'll do something else." All the faces around me seemed to droop with frowns. "Come on people it's not a funeral."

"Yeah, but you're still leaving soon," Matt muttered, still leaning out of the doorway.

"In three weeks," I asserted. Three weeks was a lot of time in my books, but it didn't seem to make Linda, Mello or Matt any happier. "Besides," I winked, trying to add a hint of liveliness, "I can't leave yet anyway. I haven't finished my botany project for biology."

"Botany project?" Mello asked. He raised his head and half of his expression said, 'How could you be worried about a biology project at a time like this?' and the other half seemed to be quite curious as to what I was up to.

"Sure, come see." I reached out and took Mello's hand and started to lead him down the hall.

* * *

><p>We'd taken two steps when Linda called conspiratorially from behind us, "We're going to catch up with the two of you later," she gestured to herself and Matt. Linda shoved my boxed and suitcase back into my room, Matt winked and the two of them started down the hall in the opposite direction. I smiled after them for a second and then proceeded to lead Mello down the science wing.<p>

"So what is this project of yours?" Mello asked as we strolled into the unoccupied biology class. We shuffled past the desks and tables and made our way to the back of the class where there was another door that led straight into a greenhouse outside.

"Roses," I smiled.

"Roses?"

"Roses."

We let ourselves into the greenhouse and the humidity hit us like a wave. We walked towards the far wall where I had six large ceramic pots resting on a low shelf; green, leafy bushes were growing tall out of them, and each bush had a handful of blossoms just waiting to peak out.

"I'm so excited," I smiled. "Flowers are so beautiful. They're so breathtakingly beautiful I sighed."

"So what exactly is this experiment of yours?"

"Alright, so basically I'm trying to create a new type of rose. I'm using recombinant D.N.A. to try and create different coloured roses. You know, blue roses, purple roses, green roses. They've got various shades of red and pink, and of course white, but what about more exotic colours? Well that's where I come in," I beamed.

"Why six pots? Six different colours?"

"Mello," I faked disappointment, "you know better than that. I've got two control groups, two test groups and two groups that I didn't use recombinant D.N.A. on."

"Two groups of each for the test-retest reliability measure?"

"You know it."

"What are the two pots you didn't use recombinant D.N.A. on for?"

"I'm just using food colouring on those," I chuckled, "I put food colouring in the water. Just to see how it would work you know." Mello talking to me again and Mello talking to me about roses had put me in quite an amazing mood.

"So why all the different colours anyway? Not satisfied with reds and whites?"

"Well, different coloured roses are given to people to signify different things you know."

"Ah, huh. So I suppose roses are your favourite flower then?"

"Nope," I smiled again and Mello gave me a quizzical look. "Roses were just the easiest to work with because they come in white."

"So what's your favourite flower?" he asked it like he was bored. He asked it like he was only asking to make conversation, but I could hear the genuine curiosity behind his monotonous tone.

"Forget-Me-Not's," I answered quietly and Mello shot me another look. "I mean, they're so beautiful to begin with, but the name you know. The name is like, it's like I promise. 'I'll never forget you,' or 'you'll always, be, in, my..." Mello had been staring at me so intently and I'd hardly realised it until I could no longer form a coherent sentence. "Mello?" I asked, barely above a whisper.

Mello began slowly but surely leaning in, "I, I'm sor..."

"Hey guys! Get a room!"

I sighed and my head fell forward, Mello growled and his head snapped back.

"Hell Matt!" I called to the greenhouse door.

"We are in a room, smart one!" Mello called after me.

"Irrelevant."

"What do you want Matt?" I sighed.

Matt plastered an innocent expression on his face, "Its lunch time," he said like he couldn't possibly conceive of either of us not realising that little fact.

"You interrupted us for food?" Mello asked incredulous.

"You can't survive on kisses."

"You can't survive without them," I smiled, they looked at me like I was crazy. "You know, I read somewhere that you need four hugs a day for survival, eight hugs a day for maintenance and twelve hugs a day for growth," I shot them a toothy grin.

"That's hugs, not kisses."

Mello and I started to head for the greenhouse door. It was apparent Matt wasn't going to leave us alone.

"You just need to do the unit conversions," I answered back.

"Conversions?" they both asked at once.

"Yeah, hugs to kisses. Unit conversions. It's like turning grams of sodium chloride into moles of sodium chloride using Avogadro's Number and the atomic weight of sodium and chlorine."

"Alright, enlighten us Gem," Matt pushed with a smart-alecky attitude.

"It's a ratio. Two hugs equal one kiss," I said like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

They both looked at me and then each other and then the three of us shared a laugh as we joined Linda at the end of the hall and made our way to the cafeteria.

* * *

><p>The rest of the morning and the afternoon went by so wonderfully, and after Linda and I finished moving all my belongings into her room I spent the evening with Mello. We decided it would be nice to take a stroll around the grounds. It was so peaceful and quiet and, relaxing being with him. I was so at ease. I held his hand and leaned against his shoulder as we walked, watching the sunset slowly behind the horizon. It was starting to get cold and dark before we finally decided to come in.<p>

It seemed as though the entire school had decided to turn in early tonight. The halls were deserted and unlit. An eerie silence descended upon us as we headed through the corridors and then it happened!

Dull and muted crashing sounds echoed through the barren hallways and reached our ears. One smash, two, three four. Mello and I shared a glance, trying to figure out what was going as two more crashes resounded towards us.

One half second after the final crash I realized what it was; I was one half second too late. My heart started thumping in my chest and Mello must have figured it out at the same time I had because we both tore off running at the same time.

We raced up one hallway and down another until we spotted a stream of light cascading out from under a science room door; a science room that should have been abandoned this late at night.

Mello got to the door a half a step before I did and tore the door open. The resulting sudden change of air pressure acted on an open door at the back of the room, causing it, in turn, to swing open as well. I charged in ahead of Mello and met the sweltering humidity from the greenhouse with as much resistance as I could.

Upon entering I found there to be no other people inside. But the absence of people wasn't the first thing that caught my attention. I walked in slowly as Mello came up behind me.

I sighed heavily and my shoulders fell as I stared down at the wreckage at my feet. Ceramic pots and top soil littered the ground; but that wasn't the worst of it. Had the pots simply been dropped I might've been able to save the flowers, but someone had taken the pruning shears off of the shelf and had clipped all of my roses at their roots.

"They hadn't even bloomed yet," I said barely above a whisper. "They were cut down before they reached their potential, before they had barely gotten to live."

I could feel fury rolling off of Mello in waves behind me.

"See, this is exactly what I was talking about," he was gritting his teeth and trying not to raise his voice. "You know Caitlin did this."

"What does it matter who did it, they're dead. That's the bottom line," I dropped to my knees and picked up the dying plants. I took one in my hand and peeled back one of the leaves from a newly forming bud. Even in the yellow light from the sunlamps I could tell there was a hint of lavender in the petals. "What a waste," I said quietly, "they would have been so beautiful."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> IMPORTANT! Please read this one, LOL. I have important information ha-ha.

So, it occurred to me while writing this chapter, and having to cross reference some previous information, that I did not put said 'previous information' into a previous chapter. I was quite displeased when I found this out :/ I mean, it was something I had been planning to put into my story from day one and BAM! I forgot it :S I'm not really sure how it happened. I mean, it's not a terribly big deal, but still you know... Anyway, since I don't feel like going back and correcting a whole chapter, I just want you all to know the following:

In my original MelloxOC FanFic, during the epilogue chapter, I was supposed to put the meaning of the different coloured roses; like for instance, "blue is for this... purple is for that..." etc. I was going to do that for this chapter too to create some continuity, but since I didn't then, I'm not going to now. Oh well. And you know what? I even credited the site I used for the information without having used the information. I'm an idiot :/

And anyway, today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D ...Feels like I haven't done one of these in a while... probably because it took me so long to get up this chapter and chapter 13 ha-ha.

So anyway:

What are your favourite anime parings and why!

I don't care if you name a couple that never happened, a yaoi/yuri pairing, a SUPPOSED yaoi/yuri paring ;P ...a crossover couple, etc. just let me know :)

LOL, if I tried to name mine we'd be here all night ha-ha.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note:** Oh. My. Gosh. I am so frustrated right now. Like actually, so incredibly frustrated. I just typed out a whole chapter. And lost it. I, in all honesty feel like giving up right now, that's how uncool this whole situation is, *Most epic of all sighs.*

Buuut of course I won't :) And in fact, my internet's been down for the past couple days, and so I was able to type out two chapters! YAY!

And hey, you know what?

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING! :D :D :D

...Or as my father used to so aptly put it:

HAPPY TURKEY DAY! :D :D :D

...(Belated now. I had every intention of actually uploading on Thanksgiving, but the site was giving me an issue and wouldn't let me. So sorry for that.)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p><em>I sighed heavily and my shoulders fell as I stared down at the wreckage at my feet. Ceramic pots and top soil littered the ground; but that wasn't the worst of it. Had the pots simply been dropped I might've been able to save the flowers, but someone had taken the pruning shears off of the shelf and had clipped all of my roses at their roots.<em>

"_They hadn't even bloomed yet," I said barely above a whisper. "They were cut down before they reached their potential, before they had barely gotten to live."_

_I could feel fury rolling off of Mello in waves._

"_See, this is exactly what I was talking about," he was gritting his teeth and trying not to raise his voice. "You know Caitlin did this."_

"_At least she didn't burn them," I smiled bitterly._

"_This is serious! I told you she was trouble. You know she did this," he said again._

"_What does it matter who did it, they're dead. That's the bottom line," I dropped to my knees and picked up the dying plants. I took one in my hand and peeled back one of the leaves from a newly forming bud. Even in the yellow light from the sunlamps I could tell there was a hint of lavender in the petals. "What a waste," I said quietly, "they would have been so beautiful."_

"Damnit!" Mello cussed behind me. "That's it, she's been at this long enough."

"Just forget it Mello."

"Why should we just forget it?"

"Because there isn't anything either of us can do. I mean, I've heard the rumours Mello. She's always been like this, long before I showed up isn't that right? And people have just put up with her and you know why? She's not an orphan Mello. She's here because her daddy's forking out thousands of dollars for this institution."

"So what? We're all just supposed to kneel to her like she's royalty because she's got money? You're just going to bow down to her? You're just going to let her win?"

"She's already won Mello. She's taking my chess board piece by piece. She took the king when she took you, she took my bishop," I pointed to the dead flowers. "It's check, I might as well forfeited."

"Check huh?" Mello seemed to turn my words over in his head. "Do you still want that game Jewel? You were always asking me to have a game of chess with you."

I hadn't asked him to play me in forever, what was he getting at?

"I'll make you a deal. You have one game with me; one game of chess. If I win you won't back don't and just let this go. If you win I'll drop this, and I won't say another word about it. You can go be a pushover for the rest of your life."

Jerk.

"You may be second around here Mello, but no one except Near has ever beat me at chess."

"Well then, you shouldn't be worried about playing me."

He had a point.

We left the mess of pots and dirt on the floor and made our way to the library where a chess board with frosted glass and crystal pieces was set up.

* * *

><p>We sat across from each other. I chose the side where the frosted glass was set up; I would not be making the first move. I never made the first move. I hated it. The person who made the first move always had to be on their toes. The person who made the first move was automatically on offence; I never did well on offence. I was a defensive player, but like I'd always said, 'The best offence is a good defence.'<p>

The two of us worked through a couple of basic moves at first, and then I figured out what was going on. Mello was playing poorly and on purpose. At first I thought maybe it was him who was going to forfeit, but then I realised he was just sizing me up. He was trying to lead me into a false sense of security. Well I wasn't about to under estimate him.

Halfway through the game I was more than a little worse for wear. It was time to pull out my secret weapon; it was time to employ the oldest of all techniques... it was time to cheat.

Cheating against regular opponents was the easiest thing on record. They were always being distracted by the simplest things; but then cheating against regular opponents was rarely, if ever even required.

I decided to go for my sleight of hand gambit. I waited until it was Mello's turn again and began staring at him intently. After only a handful of seconds Mello glanced up to meet my gaze. I forced my eyes to hold curiosity, I forced an expression that would draw Mello in. It would make him wonder what I was thinking, it would make him focus on my unspoken words instead of my unadvertised actions. I waited until I was sure I held his undivided attention, and then without looking I swapped a pawn for a captured knight.

It was always important to use the bit on your opponent's turn, and it was always important to hold their gaze for a long moment. It would unnerve them, it would shake them up and when they saw the replaced piece on the board they would still be too focused on the curious happenings to really pay attention to what they were seeing.

It worked, and as a result, I came back and seven moves later announced, "Checkmate."

I had won, and so the issue was dropped.

* * *

><p>The days passed slowly, but Mello was talkig to me again, so I wasn't worried about a whole lot. There were rumours going around one day about how one of the first students at Wammy's house had been killed by Kira. I knew it hadn't been L; the others were saying his name was B. But I wasn't too worried about that either; sad as it was.<p>

Caitlin had waited until the day I was leaving before she made her next move.

It had been explained to me by Roger, that at two o'clock in the afternoon I was to be chauffeured to the airport. I would take a flight to London and then from there catch a nonstop flight to Japan. In Japan I would be picked up by another chauffer and taken to L's headquarters. L himself would meet me there.

I had had to deal with Caitlin's snide comments and remarks all month while I waited passively for this day. In all my classes, in the halls, in the cafeteria her voice and biting comments echoed into my ears. I had listened to her slander me, and I had grudgingly listened to her slander Matt, Mello and Linda as well.

I was all but at my breaking point when she pushed me too far.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon and I was grabbing a quick bite to eat with Matt, Mello and Linda before I had to finish packing for my flight.

The four of us were sitting at a lunch table. Linda, Matt and I each had a bowl of tomato soup and a plate of veggies and crackers, Mello was characteristically munching away on a chocolate bar. I'd given up months ago trying to figure out how he never got sick, or trying to reason where he got any, let alone all of his essential vitamins.

I was halfway through my pile of carrot sticks when I saw Near across the cafeteria. I reminded myself I that I would have to say goodbye to him before I left, and mentally scolded myself that I had spent so little time with him lately.

I watched him for a second, and then out of the corner of my eye I saw Caitlin and her two, joined-at-the-hip Sirens approaching him. I observed them suspiciously for a moment. They all stopped a foot apart and seemed to be having a conversation; I couldn't hear anything over the general noise of the cafeteria. Near and Caitlin's two friends were all carrying a tray of food; Caitlin wasn't. She was carrying only a bowl, a bowl of tomato soup; and she wasn't carrying it for long.

I watched and waited and thirty seconds later Near was wearing Caitlin's tomato soup on his white clothes.

The cafeteria grew quiet but my ears started burning. A felt a vicious snarl spread over my face and when Caitlin's clones shrill laughing reached my ears I started to see red. Red that did not include Near's newly stained clothes.

I watched Near placed his tray on a nearby table and stalk out of the cafeteria. Caitlin's crew followed his example; they put down their trays and made a move to exit the lunch room themselves. I pushed my chair back and went after them.

By the time I caught up with them in the hallway Near was nowhere to be found and Caitlin, her crew and I were the only ones in the hall. "That's it Caitlin!" I called. They stopped walking and turned around to face me as I stormed up to them. "Mess with me? Fine. Mess with my friends? Heaven help you. But mess with my brother!" I wound up and released a right hook before she even had time to flinch. She stumbled backward and I kicked her feet out from under her. Caitlin's two cronies made a motion like they were going to move in and help her, but the steely glance I shot them had both of them backing away.

Caitlin was sitting on the floor, clutching her jaw. I took one step towards her and caught up a clump of her brassy hair in my fist. I yanked up hard pulling her to her feet.

"Oww," she whined in protest but I didn't acknowledge her. Instinctively Caitlin tried to pull away but it only caused her hair to pull more. "Let me go," she whimpered as tears started to form in the corners of her eyes.

I led her a couple steps down the hall, stopped, and then turned around to face her friends once more. "Don't either of you even think of playing the hero," I warned, just in case they were getting any ideas. I gave another sharp tug on the stringy hair in my hand, silently ordering Caitlin to walk with me.

One foot in front of the other I led Caitlin through the halls and up the stairs to the dormitory rooms by her roots. I walked a couple steps down the corridor of the boys' wing and stopped in front of my brother's door.

"Near," I called once and knocked. "Near!"

"Jewel," I heard a soft, stoic voice behind the door.

With my free hand I turned the brass door knob and let myself in; Caitlin following only a half a step behind me.

"To what do I owe this visit?" he asked without looking up. Near was perched at the head of his bed in clean clothes that could have been duplicates of his others. He was building a card tower in front of him on his blanket. The only person on the planet I figured who was capable of such a feat.

"Caitlin has something she'd like to say to you," I said with a tone that could've also been used had we simply stopped by for tea.

I placed my hand firmly on the top of Caitlin's head and gave her a hard shove downward, forcing her to kneel. "Apologize," I ordered coolly.

"Uhn, no," she whined as she braced her hunched frame on her arms.

"Apologize," I ordered a little more sternly.

"No," she whined again.

"Apologize!" I all but shouted. I gave another hard shove on the top of her head for good measure. "Apologize before I make it so you're actually sorry," I threatened and tugged her hair roughly to one side.

I heard her whimper again and a tiny stream of tears started down her face. "I'm sorry," she cried quietly.

"You're what?" I asked haughtily, "I didn't quite get that."

"I'm sorry!" she said more forcefully.

"That's good," I nodded, no lack of warning in my tone. "We'll leave you to your business now," I said, turning my attention back to Near. Then I gave one final yank on Caitlin's locks and pulled her out of the room, closing the door behind me, but not releasing Caitlin from my grasp.

* * *

><p>"Now listen Cait," I started out sternly when we'd made it to the top of the stairs, "I'm only going to say this all once, and you're going to listen and pay attention. Get it?" She nodded frantically. "I like to think I'm a pretty mild mannered person. I don't care if you like Mello, I don't care if you don't like me. But I do care when you start bullying people I care about. I've put up with a hell of a lot of your crap over these past months, but one thing I'm not going to put up with is you messing with my friends or my family. Got that?" She nodded again. "Now stay out of my face and I won't have to rearrange yours. Are we clear?"<p>

"Yes, fine!" she said angrily.

"How clear are we?" I asked, fixing anger in my tone right back.

"We're clear. We're crystal clear. I'll leave him alone, just let me go."

"If I EVER hear about anything happening to my brother while he's here, whether you're involved or not, I'm going to kick your ass. Believe it. I don't care who your daddy is, got that? I'd like to see him use all his money to protect your face from my fist." I released her hair; and dozens of loose strands fell to the ground. She started backing up slowly, turned around and left silently.

I heaved a sigh and went back to my own room. I found Mello, Matt and Linda inside.

"Heh, I thought you were going to drop it," Mello smiled snidely at me. I just stuck my tongue out at him good-humouredly.

"What was that all about?" Linda asked.

"Meh, who knows," I shrugged. "She was doing it to get back at me, there's no doubt there though."

"It's almost two," Matt chimed in, checking his watch.

I checked my own and confirmed his observation.

"So it is."

I went over to my suitcase sitting on the bed, threw the last of my remaining clothes inside and sealed it up. I said goodbye to my three friends in turn and then dragged my suitcase through the hall to Near's room. I said a quick but fond farewell to him and then dragged my suitcase down the stairs.

Mello was waiting for me at the door. Through the side windows I could see a car already waiting for me outside.

Mello and I stood facing each other awkwardly for a moment. I could tell he wanted to say something, but maybe even in his extensive vocabulary he couldn't find the right words.

"Look, just don't be too mean to Near while I'm gone, alright," I said lightly. "And make sure and eat some vegetables, you can't live off of chocolate. And..."

"What are you, my mom?"

"I'm pretty sure there are laws against that sort of thing," I answered back and we both laughed lightly. I waited for a moment and when I knew for sure Mello wasn't going to say it, I decided to say it for the both of us, "I'm going to miss you."

Mello just nodded, and I was pretty sure I figured out then what the problem was. There were only two possibilities. One was that he was sincerely broken up about me leaving; the other was that he was still worried about Caitlin. I decided to go with the second to keep things from getting too sappy between us, "Listen! Forget about her." I smiled sweetly at him, "I took care of it. And besides, we can get through anything Mello! Anything, as long as we have each other." So, maybe things could get a little sappy.

"Yeah sure, but you're leaving."

"I'll be back before you know it," I winked. "And when I get back, we can pick up right where we left off eh?" I asked slyly and smiled.

"Sure," I was surprised, but please when Mello smiled back.

We leaned into each other then. We leaned in and kissed sweetly for all too short a time.

Then I picked up my suitcases without another word and carried them out the door to a waiting car.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Wow, I went back to some old chapters of mine to find some old information, and man, I've got to say it might actually help if I proof read these chapters every once in a while. Goodness, it's a wonder any of you can understand what I've typed ha-ha.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: **Okay, I just want to make sure that everyone here read chapter 16 AND chapter 15... I updated them both at the same time and it seems as though some people missed that and forgot to read 15 :) Juuust so you know. Chapter 16 doesn't make a whole lot of sense without 15.

But anyway, I've chosen to write this chapter a little differently this time. Because I have so many months to go through of Jewel being with L, and because this is a Mello Fic and not an L Fic, and because I really need to convey the close relationship between Jewel and L... I've decided to use the following format. I think it'll go over well, I hope you guys like it :)

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE REVIEWS EVERYONE! :D I MEAN IT! 3

And oh, by the way...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY L! ;D 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

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><p>February 1, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

It was so nice of Linda to give me this journal before I left. Is it too cheesy to write 'Dear Diary' these days? I've never written in a journal before. Could be fun though. I've got a couple minutes while I wait for them to call me for boarding on the plane so I figured I might as well write something down.

This is all pretty exciting if you ask me. Going to work on a legitimate case with the world's greatest detective. I'm so honoured that he chose me. I'm so nervous, and I'm going to miss Linda and Matt and even Mello and Near so much... those idiots.

Oh, I've got to get going, they're announcing that I can board now.

* * *

><p>February 2, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

I am so very tired. I just got picked up at the airport in Shinjuku, Japan and it's very early in the morning. It's so exciting to be here though. I've never been to Japan before. I'm on my way to L's headquarters right now though, and quite frankly that's way more exciting than simply being in Japan. The man driving me there is Watari! Can you believe it? I haven't seen him since he brought Near and I to Wammy's. I feel a lot more comfortable about this whole situation now.

* * *

><p>February 9, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

I've met L for the second time now, and I've met the task force assigned to keep an eye on Kira, and have more or less settled in to my new surroundings. It's very nice here in Japan. L seems to be very nice too, and he's quite handsome once you get past the bizarreness of his personality. He's quite eccentric in my own opinion. He seems to have a sugar fetish just like Mello does, but his is not limited to chocolate :) He reminds me of Near too. He's very calculating and reserved. I don't think he sleeps much, or does much of anything but sit in front of computer screens.

Even if L is reserved though, the other day we had a very nice conversation. He told me that Roger had contacted him just before I arrived to tell him about my incident with Caitlin. Apparently somebody snitched on me. He asked me why I had attacked Caitlin the way I had. I explained to him that while Near and I had never been really close, all we really had was each other. We were family and I was prepared to do anything to keep him safe. I explained to L that I would do anything to protect not only my family, but the people I cared about as well. He seemed pleased with my answer.

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><p>February 14, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

I've adjusted quite well I think. I miss Matt and Mello and Linda and Near though. I can't contact them due to security reasons but L has promised to pass on the word for me.

So far my job seems to be simply that of a protégé to L. I work under him, but it isn't quite that simple. L makes sure I'm always included in discussions and speculations relating to the case. He's always asking for my opinion. I can't tell yet is he's testing me, trying to help me learn, or is just genuinely interested in my thoughts. But he's always polite enough about it, so I don't mind either way.

In any case it's St. Valentine's day. Once again I'm alone. Not alone in the physical sense, but you know what I mean. Everyone here has made such an effort to make me feel like I fit in, but I still feel lonely. L reminds me so much of Mello and Near, but it just isn't the same... I wonder if Mello is thinking about me right now? I mean, we are kind of... Man, guys are confusing.

* * *

><p>March 18, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

L is so smart! I really wish I could be as great as an investigator as he is one day. He's the kind of person that makes you want to be all that you can be. He makes me want to strive to be better than I am. He's so good at puzzles and putting things together; examining all the clues and whatnot. I've been keeping my eye on him. I'm hoping that maybe I can pick up some good habits of his; I really hope I can learn a lot here, and be of some help to L in his investigation.

* * *

><p>March 30, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

Lately I've been looking over all the old information gathered about this case. I mean really looking over it; fine-toothed comb and all that jazz. I've discovered a hair of a discrepancy in the killings being performed by Kira. Something's different about them. I plan to present my finding's to L right away.

* * *

><p>April 7, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

L made an offensive move the other day. L has his suspicions about a university student named Light Yagami, who incidentally, happens to be director Yagami's son! Mr. Yagami ended up in the hospital today. I think it's mostly stress related. L went to Light's university and introduced himself. I personally have been instructed to tell the others that if L dies, Light Yagami is the killer. At this point I don't care who the killer is, I just don't want L to die! I have a feeling L might be a little upset at hearing me say that, but I just don't care. L is a very important person. In general, and to me personally.

* * *

><p>April 18, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

Today was a terrible day, but it confirmed my pervious suspicions. Today the task force, L and I were discussing Naomi Misora's death when Watari came into the room and told us we'd ought to turn on the TV. Sakura Media was broadcasting tapes that were supposedly sent to the station by Kira! L and I both believe this was the work of a different Kira though. Not the one we've been chasing for so long. It confirms by findings of irregular killing patterns by Kira. And not only that, it appears this new Kira can kill with just a face, and not a name. Ukita died trying to stop the broadcast. Aizawa got really mad at L and that in turn made me really mad. I felt as though I had to defend L, like I had to stick up for him. I wonder if L isn't more important to me than I first thought.

* * *

><p>April 19, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

L and I watched, (or listened to, I guess,) the remaining tapes that Kira, (or, the second Kira,) sent to Sakura TV. This Kira has made a personal threat against L and I don't like it. Moreover while I'm mentioning the second Kira... something's got me a little, uneasy. Everyone around here keeps saying, 'he' when referring to the second Kira, and yet... that just doesn't feel right. I've watched the tapes again and again and I don't know, I just feel like, the tone, the vocabulary, the feeling behind it all... It feels like a female is behind this. And you know what else? L wants to ask Light Yagami to help with the investigation. LIGHT YAGAMI! The one that L suspects of being the original Kira. I'm sure L has his reason, and I can almost comprehend them myself... but still. I've watched the old surveillance tapes of Light Yagami and I just don't like him.

* * *

><p>April 24, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

I don't trust him. Not one bit. Light came in here the other day because L asked him to join our task force. The thing was that L had a bit of a test set up for Light. If Light could pass L's test (which was to watch the tapes and see if he could figure out that there was another Kira on the loose,) that he could join our team. Well Light passed alright, but something's fishy. They way Light figured it out, it took him maybe all of five minutes. There's no way he's THAT smart, there's no way he could've drawn that kind of conclusion so quickly... Unless of course Light already knew there was a second Kira. And how could Light know that, you ask? Well he must have some sort of connection with one, or both of the Kira's. And if that weren't evidence enough, I get an all round, old school, bad feeling when he's in the room.

L wants Light to script a message as Kira to be aired on the news. I don't like the way Light wrote it, it's too convincing. Moreover, wouldn't us pretending to be the original Kira only upset the original Kira further? Don't they see that? And what happens if more and more people start claiming to be Kira, this could get totally out of control! No, the only way we could get away with something as brazen as that is if Kira was already on board with our plan. Nope, I don't trust Light one bit. He's tried to be friendly towards me, but I can tell it's totally fake.

* * *

><p>April 25, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

We got a reply from the second Kira today. I'm fully convinced it's a female. The way she pledged her undying support for Kira? It's something a girl would do... A very deranged girl. And Light? He seemed way too displeased with everything. It was like he, it was like he... I just don't know, but something was wrong. The reply from the second Kira went on to talk about 'eyes' of some kind, and then the second Kira mentioned Shinigami in the tape. I don't know how much I buy into all of that, but L seemed pretty freaked out about it all.

* * *

><p>May 12, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

We got a package from the second Kira today. It was some kind of journal entry, some way to communicate to the original Kira her plans, and how they are to meet. There's one glaring entry made about Shinigami, but in my own opinion it's obviously a fake. There's no way anybody is that stupid. There has to be some sort of code in the page somewhere.

* * *

><p>May 22, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

L thinks it's a good idea to check out all of the entries mentioned in the journal page we got from the second Kira. That's why Light and Matsuda are going to Aoyama today... I've never felt so vulnerable in my life! I'm being sent to look for two Kira's with a guy who just might be one of them, and some kind of rookie cop/detective. Not the safest thing I've ever done. Buuut, its L's idea, and I trust him. I don't know why. I mean, I've only been working with L for a couple months now, but there's just something about him. Something that tells me I can trust him to keep me safe. And there's something about him that makes me want to keep him safe too. Maybe it's his cause, maybe it's the way he's kind of looked after me since I've been here. Watari, L and I are the only ones who stay at the hotel together so he and I have spent a lot of time together these past months. That guy really grows on you after a while.

* * *

><p>May 31, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

Good grief, there has been so much commotion around here this past week! Kira... our Kira, and the second Kira have been communicating all over the board. And then Light started dating this girl Kiyomi Takada but there was also this other girl named Misa Amane! L decided to hold Misa Amane because he thinks she could be the second Kira... I knew it was a girl! She's being confined.

But above all that, L shared something really special with me today. L told me I was his first friend. I am so flattered, and I feel so loved. I think, I think L is one of my best friends. Him and Matt. I mean, Linda's awesome and everything and Mello, well I love him, But Matt was there for me since the beginning and L is just so... I think of L as the way a brother is supposed to be. Don't get me wrong, I love Near, but L is just a little more agreeable than Near is.

* * *

><p>June 14, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

Man, if you thought last month was crazy, wait till you hear this! Misa Amane, and Light Yagami AND Soichiro Yagami have all been confined! Things are just going insane, but get this: the Kira killings have stopped!

* * *

><p>July 23, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

The killings resumed shortly after Light and Misa were confined, but they were kept locked up anyway. They've been locked up for over a month now! But L is releasing them today. He's got some kind of trick/final test for the two up his sleeve, but he won't tell me what it is.

* * *

><p>July 24, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

Apparently Light passed L's test -_-* He's going to be working with us officially now. I'm almost inclined to believe his sincerity. It's like, being locked up changed him somehow.

Also, it's only a month until my birthday now! Can you believe it! L says I'm going to be going back to Wammy's for the occasion. I don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I'll be happy to see Mello and Matt and Linda again, and celebrating my birthday with my twin would be nice... even if said twin is Near. But all in all I still want to help with the case. L says not to worry though; that I'll be coming right back and he'll even meet me at Wammy's for a day. How awesome :D

* * *

><p>August 2, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

I'm just fuming. Light picked a fight with L today. I was all but ready to kill that stupid jerk myself. I might've except that Misa got in my way. She stepped in some cake and then reflexively stepped backward into me and knocked me backward against the wall. I think I sprained my ankle, but if Light tries anything like that with L again, he's going to suffer more than an ankle sprain. I'll see to that! I won't ever let anyone get away with hurting L. That is my promise to myself and to him.

* * *

><p>August 20, 2007<br>Dear Diary,

It's today! I'm being driven to the airport right now by Watari. I'm going back to Wammy's for a couple days! L has promised to follow after me closer to the exact date, just so he can work on the Kira case for as long as possible without interruptions. I'm so excited :D

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Got my dates by comparing the Death Note Wiki Timeline against the Wikipedia article for the episodes. If my dates are off I'm sorry. If my dates are so off your OCD and love for the series is being offended, please let me know :) And yes, I changed some facts around. Had to happen, don't hate ;P

Also, I'm declaring an emergency FanFix! (Ha-ha, get it? ;P FanFIX! 'Cause I'm a fan, and I'm going to be FIXING an anime, AND it's a homonym for FanFic's ;P FanFix/FanFic's. Get it? Get it? I was so stoked when I came up with that ^_^ LOL.) But yeah, I watched Vampire Knight this weekend, and I must say, the first 13 episodes and then some, were all like D': and then they were all like :'D and then they switched back again. But the ending! The ending was all D: (You know you love how I use emoticons to describe my life) I was sooo displeased with how they chose to end it! I mean, SERIOUSLY! So yeah, I'm going to finish this Fic, and then before I continue with the sequel I'm going to rewrite the ending of Vampire Knight :) Don't be angry, it won't take long, LOL.

Also, I'd like everyone to take a moment of silence for River Phoenix. He died eighteen years ago to the day. He was only 23 years old.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note: **Know what I did these past months of not updating? (Yeah, sorry for that BTW. You know how it is with school and all.)

It all started on the first, when, at 3:30pm I went to deliver a coat to my brother. It all ended at 8:30, five hours later when I made it back home. In between I missed about 7 buses, waited for four that weren't coming, and had to walk about eighty city blocks. My brother gives idiotic directions.

And then I got a cold. And then I got shingles... I don't care what ANYBODY says, unless you've just got an appendage chopped off, NOTHING hurts more than shingles.

And then I bought Nickelback's new CD and life became okay again =^.^= 3

And Now, I'm done all my finals :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>August 21, 2007<strong>

It was either really, really late at night, or really, really early in the morning by the time I made it from the airport to Wammy's.

Roger met me at the front door; it made sense that someone had told him I would be coming back. It felt like I hadn't been at Wammy's for ages. Sure I'd been gone a number of months, but it really felt like a different life time when I was here last.

"Please do take care not to wake the other students," was the first thing out of Roger's mouth when he opened the door for me.

Yeah, nice to see you too Roger.

"Yes sir."

I followed the ever familiar hallways up to my room with Linda, being especially careful not to bang my suitcase, or knock anything over in the dark. I came to my door and yawned as quietly as I was able to before I slid it open.

Pale moonlight was streaming in through the window and silhouetting Linda who was laying in the left most bed, fast asleep. I covered my mouth and yawned again.

I laid my suitcase on the floor and was about to snuggle into my bed when I realised I had to use the washroom. It'd been a long flight.

I had barely gotten out my door when I noticed a pale yellow light streaming down one of the far hallways. It could only be one room; the library.

"You're kidding me," I whispered to myself and crept down the stairs.

I stalked silently through the hallway and leaned my ear against the library door. I could've sworn I heard a faint pinging noise, but it stopped almost instantly. I listened harder for another moment and then opened the door.

"Matt?" Not the person who I had been expecting.

The redheaded gamer looked up from his handheld system. "Gem!" Matt legitimately leaped over the table between us and tackled me to the ground.

Both of us were lucky we were on carpet. I was lucky because it didn't hurt as much being tackled onto a Persian rug than it did hardwood floors, and Matt was lucky because the noise he made was significantly muffled. Roger would've skinned us both for wandering around at this time of night.

"What are you doing back?"

"What are you doing in the library?"

Matt shrugged, rolled off of me, and offered his hand to help me up. "Mello kicked me out. He wanted sleep tonight. Said I had to play my game somewhere else. He's been especially touchy these days," Matt scratched his head like he didn't know why; and he probably didn't. One never knew 'why' with Mello. "But hey," he started again, "you're back!"

"Yeah, just for my birthday," I shrugged.

"It's your birthday today!"

"Ha-ha, no not today, on the twenty-fourth."

"Man, I don't think I ever knew that."

"Yeah, I guess Near and I came to Wammy's after our last birthday, so... Hey," I said, realising something, "when's your birthday?"

"February 1st."

"February 1st?" That was the day I had left! "Maaaaatt! Why didn't you say anything?"

"What was I supposed to say?"

"I don't know... but, but I feel horrible now. I left on your birthday. I didn't wish you a happy birthday, I didn't get you anything, I didn't..."

"Hey, don't worry about it, it's cool," he interrupted.

"But..."

"Never mind," he laughed and waved me off. "Now listen, it's cool you're back, but I'm going to bed," Matt walked past me and gave me a pat on the head. "Walk you up?"

"Yeah, sure."

Matt delivered me to my room, where I yawned the whole time I was changing into my pyjamas.

I had barely snuggled into my bed and closed my eyes when I felt a hand clamp over my mouth!

My eyes hammered open and I tried to scream but the hand clamped down harder and a harsh, "Shh!" resounded in my ears. I tried to struggle but my attacker's free hand caught my wrists and pinned them at my side. "Shh!" I heard again, but this time it was followed with, "It's me Jewel, chill out."

"Matt!" I hissed. "What. The hell. Are you doing?"

"Mello's gone."

"What do you mean Mello's gone?" I asked a little too loudly; my heart only beginning to recover from the thought of being molested.

Matt shushed me again and guided my gaze over to Linda's still sleeping form. It was a miracle she hadn't woken up yet with all the commotion. Matt took my hand and pulled me up out of bed and out into the hall.

"What's going on Matt?" I whined, I was exhausted.

"I went back to our room and he wasn't there. He was the one who told me to leave so that he could get some sleep and he wasn't even there!"

"So? He probably just went to the washroom."

"He's not in the washroom."

"He probably just went for a walk, you know what he's like."

"Help me look for him."

"What!"

"C'mon!"

"For the love of God Matt!" As much of a fuss as I was putting up however, I wasn't totally averse to the idea of seeing Mello tonight... even if I was exhausted and in my pyjamas.

"Help me look for him."

"Fine!" I hissed.

Matt elected to take inside the school building, so somehow I got stuck searching the grounds. I felt a little cheated until I found Mello sitting under an old willow tree in the back of the grounds.

"You better have one damn good explanation for this," I teased as I approached.

Mello appeared startled at my voice and turned to face me. "Jewel! What are you doing here?"

"Me? I'm looking for you."

"You know what I mean."

I closed the distance between Mello and myself and sat down beside him against the tree. "I'm just back for my birthday. I..." I yawned and then continued, "I ran into Matt on my way to bed. Seems he couldn't find you," I yawned again.

Mello turned away from me and went back to staring at the moon.

"Sure is beautiful," I said as I joined his gaze.

"Yeah, you are."

I instantly felt the heat of a blush hint at the crests of my cheeks and I turned to face Mello to be sure I'd heard him right. He'd turned away from the moon and was facing me again; the pale moonlight made Mello's cerulean eyes come alive and it made me realise just how much I had missed him all the time I had been away. I knew then that I wanted my life to be like this forever. I wanted it to be Mello and me together, against the world.

* * *

><p><strong>August 24, 2007<strong>

It'd had been a quiet and uneventful couple of days at Wammy's, so when I swore I heard something and opened my eyes in bed on the morning of my birthday, I was a little suspicious.

The school was dead quiet and everyone was still asleep, but I still heard something. The tiniest creak from the front door resounded up the stairs, through the hall, past my door and into my room. The tiniest click from the front door as it closed followed right up behind it.

I narrowed my eyes in confusion and threw the covers back; crept out of my room and down the hall to the top of the stairs where I could see the front door.

"L! You're back!" I cried delightedly. I ran down the stairs and jumped into his arms. He probably wasn't too pleased with that action of mine, on account of how impersonal he always tried to be, but if he had a problem with it, he didn't say.

"Why hello, how are you?"

"Better now that you're back," I smiled widely. "Did you solve the case while I was gone?" I winked.

L smiled down at me, "Here, I've brought you something," he told me, as he fished a teddy bear out of a bag he'd brought with him.

It was a glorious thing; so soft, and so fuzzy. It had a cute red ribbon tied in a bow around its neck, and the symbol of a Virgo, my star sign, sewn onto its right shoulder.

"Oh L! I just love it!" I beamed up at him.

"Thought you might. Happy birthday."

It was so sweet of L to remember, let alone to get me a present. Although, I didn't think L ever forgot much of anything. Not a single detail ever eluded him. He was the best detective in the world after all. I'd been told that growing up, but after working with him for almost seven months now, I could personally verify it.

"I hope you didn't forget Near," I teased. I recalled how L had been there when my brother and I had been brought to Wammy's by Watari.

"Me? Never," L responded and he pulled out another gift from the bag, for my twin brother. It was a plain white puzzle with a small black L in the top left hand corner; 1,000 pieces.

"You're the best L, thank you so much. I love this bear so much, and I just know Near will enjoy that puzzle," I smiled and hugged him again. "You're the best L."

We talked for another couple of minutes and then L disappeared down one of the many hallways to go find Roger.

* * *

><p>There wasn't much that happened for birthday's around Wammy's. The cooks made a cake and there was another present or two, but nothing huge.<p>

L wasn't able to stay too long. I'm sure he went to see Near and I know he talked to Roger for a little while. But before I knew it L was on his way back to Japan, and I knew that I'd be back on my way to Japan in no time as well. I figured I might as well get a head start on things and went up to my room to start packing.

"You're not going yet are you?" a bored sounding voice asked from my doorway.

"Not yet Mello."

"When are you leaving?"

"In a day or two I imagine." I placed the shirt I'd been folding into my suitcase and turned around to face Mello.

Silence.

"What's up Mello?" I asked exasperated. It seemed awkward silences were becoming the norm with us.

I think I must have blinked then and missed something, because when I opened my eyes Mello was only a half a step away from me and lifting me up onto my bed.

"Mello!" I cried in shock as I landed on my bed, with him hovering over me.

"What am I to you?"

"What!"

"What am I to you?" he asked more sternly.

"W-wh-where's this coming from?" I stuttered. My face was feeling hotter and hotter by the second and my heart was a veritable jackhammer in my chest.

"Jewel..." Mello leaned his face closer down to mine, till they were barely an inch apart.

I opened my mouth but no words came out. For once in my life I was actually speechless.

Suddenly, "Jewel," I heard from the other side of my door. It was Roger!

I sat up quickly, knocking Mello to the floor as a Roger's call was followed by a knocking sound of his own.

"Jewel?" he asked again, and opened the door as Mello picked himself off the floor.

"Yessir," I said coming to attention.

Roger took one look at me, and one look at a staggering Mello and then said, "L requested that you follow him back to Japan tomorrow morning. He says he's sorry for the short notice, but that it really would be best."

"Oh, sure," I didn't bother to hide the disappointment in my voice. I knew I should have been honoured. I knew it was a rarity to be requested by L, and I knew so many kids at Wammy's, Mello included, would have loved this opportunity, and I did love working with L, but still...

"Mello, I'm requesting an audience with you and Near in my office in five minutes. I'll thank you in advance for being there." Roger turned and left then, closing the door behind him.

There was a brief pause between Mello and I before I managed, "...Mello?"

"I've got to get going," he said without looking at me, and started for the door.

"Hey! But wait! What about...?"

"You heard Roger, I've got five minutes."

"It doesn't take five minutes to walk down to his office from here. We can finish our conver..."

"Later." And with that he too left the room, closing my door behind him.

"ARGH!" I growled in frustration.

* * *

><p>I didn't see Mello, Near or Matt all the rest of the day. The three of them seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. And I didn't even see Linda until it was time to go to bed.<p>

"Crazy day," she said to me.

"You, have no idea," I responded.

"Heard you're leaving tomorrow morning."

"Word gets around fast here, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, you know how it is. It was good to see you though. When do you think you'll be back next?"

"No idea."

I was asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

* * *

><p>I had five minutes.<p>

I had overslept and had barely had enough time to finish packing and get everything together before I had to leave. I had said my goodbye's to Linda, Near and Matt, and now, once again, a car was waiting to pick me up at the front gate and drop me off at the airport. I had five minutes before I had to be in that car. I had five minutes, to find Mello.

"Mello!" I called. I had found him sitting under the old willow tree in the back of the property. "Mello, I'm leaving soon. I just wanted to say goodb... What's wrong?" I asked when I noticed Mello was in one of his usual sour moods. "Mello? Are you alright?" I asked again when I got no response.

"Didn't you hear?" he said finally.

"Hear what?"

"When L was here he was talking to Roger about which one of us was going to replace him if something happened."

"Yeah?" I didn't like the idea of L needing a replacement, but I didn't see what... and then it hit me. "It was always going to be you, wasn't it? It was always going to be you, until..."

"Until you and your stupid brother showed up."

I hung my head. I wasn't sure what to do in a situation like this. "So, who is it now?" I was really afraid to ask. I knew Near had the better grades and I wasn't looking forward to Mello's anger concerning the issue, but I had to say something.

"L didn't pick. Not yet."

"Well, that's a good thing right? I mean, at least he didn't say that it wasn't going to be you. That just proves that..."

"That just proves that I'm not the first and obvious choice anymore. It just proves I'm playing second fiddle to that bastard."

"C'mon Mello, I know you're mad but you don't have to..."

"You have no idea what this meant to me!" he snapped, cutting me off again. "I was going to be the one to succeed L, I was the one who worked the hardest and wanted it the most!"

"You still could be," I insisted.

"It's not the same. It was a hands down choice before. But now..."

"Now if you are the one to succeed him, it'll be a greater honour because of the competition you had."

"Whatever."

"Mello..."

"I said, whatever."

I didn't know what else to say. I didn't know how else I could try and ease the situation.

I checked my watch, it was time to get going. I opened my mouth one more time, but I couldn't decide on whether to say, 'I'm sorry' or just 'goodbye,' so I just turned and left.

Matt met me on Wammy's front steps before I'd made it to the car.

"Don't mind him you know how he is."

"Sure Matt."

"I mean it! I mean, look, you two are almost always fighting and yet you still can't get enough of each other. You're always yelling about something, but I can see it as clear as anybody."

"See what Matt?" I asked with a hint of exasperation in my voice.

"See that you two would do anything for each other. You two might have different opinions and argue all the time, but I know that the one thing you two would both agree on."

"What's that Matt?"

"You two wouldn't hesitate to give anything for the other. Anything!"

I smiled. Somewhere deep down inside of me, I knew he was right. I just hoped neither of us would ever need to prove that point.

"Sure Matt," I flashed a toothy grin at him.

"Jewel, it's time to go," the driver called behind me.

"I'll see ya Matt. Tell Mello I said goodbye."

"Sure thing Gem, stay safe."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Alright, first things first, some of you may've noticed that the interaction between Jewel and L when he gave her, her present was a little different than the flashback to the same scene was in the original. Had to happen, some things just didn't work. Sorry for the break in continuity.

I'm skipping the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll today. I am legitimately so tired right now you have no idea... and that being said, if this chapter is really weird or off or makes no sense let me know. I kind of wanted to edit it before I posted just to make sure it was okay, but I have sooo much going on and I've taken so long to update... well yeah :) I hope you liked it.

...Man, I'm sure all you guys are like, "What happened to the short authors notes? The ones where Snooze would say, 'rate and review' and that's it? I sure miss those." Yeah, well... lol ;P


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note: **Well, I was going to have this up at Christmas yet, but damn was I busy! Between working, and hauling an overnight bag across Vancouver from house to house to house, well I need a vacation from my vacation, LOL.

So, I'm going with the same kind of format as last time. Got a couple of months to get through again...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p>September 1, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

I've been back in Japan for about a week now. This whole situation has just gotten really depressing. I don't think anybody is even worried about all the people who are dying anymore; it feels like we're all just annoyed that this case has been dragging out so long.

I've been through all the evidence so many times, I've got everything memorized word for word and I still can't find anything. It's like the numbers just aren't adding up. One plus one doesn't equal two anymore. I feel so useless here. I'm supposed to be helping this investigation, but instead it feels like I've hit a wall.

Then there's that thing with Mello too. I wish he wasn't so surly all the time. I wish I could figure him out. I probably could if he'd give me even half a chance.

At least there seems to be an endless supply of bubblegum around here.

* * *

><p>September 25, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

The killings are continuing again. apparently there was a bit of a break in Kira's schedule where he committed no murders. But there's something fairly abnormal going on. The patterns aren't connecting again, like maybe there's ANOTHER Kira. And what's more, I think businessmen are being killed by Kira too now! There've only been a handful of them, but I think their deaths have been disguised by the regular Kira killings.

It's just a theory I have though.

* * *

><p>October 1<p>

Dear Diary,

I was right! There were businessmen being killed by Kira, and what's more, we've just found out that there's one particular business which seems to be benefiting quite substantially from these deaths. It's called Yotsuba and they deal with the global market. Their stock has risen exponentially over the past month or so. Of course the next logical conclusion is then that this Kira has some particular investment in the company. He either works for them, or is in some other way benefited by their success.

* * *

><p>October 3, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

Apparently Kira has been threatening political leaders. This isn't much of a surprise and it really wouldn't be such a bad thing except for, oh yeah, the following reasons: Kira's getting more publicity than ever, if world leaders give into Kira life as we know it is screwed, and oh, let's not forget, the NPA has requested that the Kira task force DISBAND! Mr. Yagami and the other team members he brought with him have been told to quit the investigation! I don't know how I would have felt if they'd quit (maybe Light would've left too, which would've been a bonus,) but Soichiro, Mogi and Matsuda all quit the NPA and stayed with us. Light's still here too -_-* In any case, if we want to keep working on this Kira investigation (and we are going to keep working on this Kira investigation,) we're no longer going to be getting any support from the NPA or any other organization. I mean, we weren't getting a whole lot to begin with, it was more that we were getting their cooperation on things, but yeah. We have to operated in like, complete secrecy now.

Shh! Don't tell anyone!

* * *

><p>October 7, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

Two randoms kind of showed up today. Apparently L hired them. What's even weirder, they both just kind of snuck into the compound. I get that that was L's test for them or whatever, but still, it's kind of creepy and unnerving that two criminals (because apparently that's what they are) could break in here. But if L trusts Aiber and Wedy, so do I, I suppose. They're going to be used to further investigate the Yotsuba group.

* * *

><p>October 9, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

I'm not sure how much longer I can tolerate Matsuda's idiocy. I mean, I know he's trying his best, and just wants to help, but he's like the little kid who pours pepper into cupcake batter when you're not looking because he thinks that's what you want... There was a kid in our neighbourhood when we were growing up who was like that.

So apparently Matsuda went to the Yotsuba group and, I don't know, started talking? (Heaven help the world when Matsuda starts talking.) So he ended up putting the whole investigation of them at risk. In the end we had to stage an elaborate death for Matusda just so that the Yotsuba group wouldn't be worried about us or suspicious of Amane (who is now apparently working for Yotsuba,) and the rest of us. Good grief what a day we had yesterday... At least I got to ride in an ambulance. I wanted to be a horrified bystander to Matsuda falling off the balcony, but apparently it would be too hard to explain why a kid my age was out so late without parental supervision. Go figure.

* * *

><p>October 15, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

Light contacted a Yostuba employee today. It was one that he figured wasn't Kira. I'm sure Light thinks pretty highly of himself for figuring that out, but really, the odds were in his favour. He only had a one in seven chance of hitting Kira instead of one of the members who were not Kira... Assuming there was only one Kira amongst the group. His arrogance has no limits. It's just the same as Kira's would be I imagine.

And speaking of Light and Kira again, L said something today that was moderately disturbing. He mentioned how if he died one day, that Light could be the one to succeed him. Uhm, HELLO! One, Light could not succeed L; two, wasn't the whole issue back at Wammy's last month that Near or Mello would be succeeding L? That whole idea got me really riled up and I was about to leave, but then it turned out that L was just testing Light again. L still believes that Light is, or at least was, Kira. Light tried to justify himself again, but L wouldn't back down! I knew I could count on him! I knew L wouldn't ever give up like that!

...And then there was another fist fight.

I wasn't having any of that. I accidentally, might've forgotten that L and Light were handcuffed together though, so that when I jumped on Light's back and tackled him to the floor... well things got a little twisted. Literally. Stupid Light.

And then L went on about how he and I were going to solve the case without Light and his father and Matsuda because they were just arguing with him and my goodness if it wasn't one of the craziest days yet! But shit got weirder still when we went into Misa's room... I don't want to get into that -_-*

Someone shoot me, we just got rid of Matsuda!

* * *

><p>October 22, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

Mogi took over for Matsuda as Misa's manager. I think that's probably for the best... at least in Misa's case. Does everyone around here suck at acting I wonder? We've got Light (who is obviously Kira even though he pretends not to be,) Matsuda (who had to fake his own death and somehow made it believable,) Misa (her rehersing for the confrontation with the Yotsuba group was just... OMG,) and now Mogi (his rendition of an enthusiastic manager leaves much to be desired.) Also, does everyone around here have a name that starts with 'M'? And let's not forget Mello and Matt back at Wammy's... Oh Mello, how I do miss you ...even if you are crazy. And what did he mean when he asked me what he means to me? Man I hate guys -_-*

* * *

><p>October 27, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

The other day Misa Amane had some kind of date with this guy from Yotsuba. She managed to ditch Mogi (my faith in the members of the task force grows slimmer every day.) But anyway, apparently Misa did something right for once. She got a recording on her phone of this guy all but confessing to being Kira. Although, I think he may've done it just to get into her pants. Kyosuke Higuchi is his name. L has plans to lure Higuchi out, using a faked confession by Matsuda. I have to admit I kind of have a little more respect for Matsuda. His earlier screw up that ended up turning out in our favour, coupled with his willingness to, quite literally, stick his neck out to catch this Higuchi guy are pretty impressive... even if I do believe he's working off of dumb luck. Although, if Higuchi is Kira, and if this Kira ends up being able to kill with only a face... Matsuda will die.

* * *

><p>October 28, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

Well, today was an eventful day to say the least. First we tricked Higuchi into believing that Matuda was going to reveal him as Kira on a Sakura TV broadcast by having our mole inside Yotsuba call Higuchi and by staging the broadcast. We had surveillance equipment installed in Higuchi's car so that we could figure out how he kills. We followed him all over town while he tried to figure out a way to learn Matsuda's name so that he could kill him. I got to ride in the helicopter with Watari, L and, unfortunately, Light. Long story short we ended up cornering Higuchi on the freeway.

After many tense moments we finally apprehended Higuchi. It turns out the Japanese police, lead by Aizawa and Ide of all people, came to help catch him... Of course they'd want in on the apprehension part so that they could share in the glory. I seem to remember the NPA pulling out of the investigation when things got dicey before.

Anyway, get this! When we finally convinced Higuchi to tell us how he did his killings, he told us about some bewitched Notebook right? Well Chief Yagami went to go get this Notebook, and started freaking the hell out! He was screaming about some huge white demon! I thought it was just all the stress and that he had finally cracked, but then Aizawa picked up the Notebook and started freaking out all the same! L had this Notebook brought to him and just the look on his face, well I had to see this for myself. It was certainly... interesting.

But then life got even weirder -_-* Light was miffed or whatever about being like, the only one who couldn't see the damn thing, the shinigami or whatever (apparently they do exist,) so he grabbed the Notebook too and started freaking out. But here's the thing... he wasn't looking at the shinigami when he started screaming. It was like, just by touching the book he had become possessed by it, while the rest of us were only freaked out by the god of death. I think L noticed it too, he made an excuse for Light, but I don't think L was really letting it slide just like that.

Anyway, Light took the book and I couldn't really see what he was doing from the back, but the way he was all turned away from L and I was pretty suspicious. It wouldn't have been so bad except that Higuchi died of a heart attack like, less than a minute after Light got his grubby hands on the possessed book. Coincidence? Yeah, freaking, right.

By the time that entire mess got sorted out and we all got back to headquarters I was exhausted. We'd lost our best link to Kira, but that the same time gained some freaky demon Notebook of Death and a shinigami. But wait! There's more!

This 'Death Note,' came with freaking rules inside about how to use the damn thing. Now here's where it gets even more interesting! There are rules in the back of the Notebook, and they seem a little fishy to me. Something about it this one 'Thirteen day rule' is all far too convenient for Light. And nothing in the book explains why Higuchi died when he lost possession of the Notebook.

* * *

><p>October 30, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

On account of the information about the Death Note, Misa was released and surprise, surprise criminals are dying. Higuchi is head, so it's not him this time. L keeps trying to get information out of 'Rem.' It's an interesting creature this, shinigami. Anyway, Rem, keeps giving like, one word/not-answering-the-question answers to things, and I wonder if she isn't trying to hide something.

* * *

><p>October 31, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

It's L's birthday today! Can you believe it? I used some of the disc's Matt gave me, and used some of the techniques he taught me to hack further into Wammy's data base. I had to go pretty far in, and I almost couldn't make it and it took me quite a while, but then, of course Wammy's would want to protect L's identity to the utmost extreme. I couldn't even come up with a real name, which I suppose, for L is a good thing. Raye Penber was manipulated by Kira into killing his colleagues because he knew their names and identities, I wouldn't want to be the person who did that to L just because I knew his name and identity. But anyway, I did manage to come up with L's birthday. I feel like we, or at least I should do something special for him, but at the same time I have a feeling that he wouldn't want the information about his birthday being spread around. I mean, if he wanted us to know, he would have told us right? But after missing Matt's birthday and all, and after realising that having no one celebrate your birthday would be pretty lame (especially since L's birth is something the whole world should celebrate,) well, I really want to do something for him.

I was thinking about baking L something really nice and sweet, just because he loves sweets so much, but Watari always takes care of that, so I just don't know :/

OH! I've got an idea! My parents weren't ever really into sweets, but there was this one kind of cake that my mom used to make on special occasions. It was a kind of strawberry shortcake, but with a much sweeter cake and it had real strawberry jam. I'm going to give it a try! I hope L likes it.

* * *

><p>November 4, 2007<p>

Dear Diary,

L seemed to really appreciate the cake I made him... well, that Watari and I made him (Watari insisted on helping. He was probably suspicious, but I don't blame him.) I didn't tell him that it was for his birthday, and I didn't tell him that I knew, but really, nothing gets past L. He didn't seem to mind though, that I knew, or that I made him that cake.

Now, all of that is all really good, and maybe I'm just over reacting, maybe all this Kira business is getting to me... but whatever it is, something has felt terribly off lately. No, not really 'lately.' More like, ever since Light got his hands on that Notebook. I know the book is being watched at all times, but the way Light has been acting ever since then, it all seems a little fake, it all seems a little sinister.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Know what tomorrow is (with regards to the timeline I mean)?

November 5... Yeah :(

...Those of you who don't know what's going to happen *coughlaurelcough* well, have fun.

And LOL, I'm sorry for all the Matsuda hate! I don't actually think he's that much of an idiot ha-ha. And I'm REALLY sorry for the lack of Mello in this, the last couple and the next couple chapters.


	20. Chapter 20

**Author's Note: **Today is the day my people. Today is the day each and every one of us has been dreading since the beginning of this series :'(

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

**Spoiler Alert:** If you don't know what's going to happen now, I suggest you read the manga or watch the anime, so that I don't ruin anything for you... Although, really...?

* * *

><p><strong>November 5, 2007<strong>

Something was just plain wrong from the moment I woke up today. Something was different, something was making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

I felt it in the ground, I felt it in the air. I felt it every time relentless raindrops would pelt the windows of my room.

I got a light breakfast and then spent the rest of the morning trying to find L. He had mysteriously disappeared. I checked every room twice over before I finally thought to check outside. You really couldn't blame me though, for not finding him sooner. L was an eccentric personality, but not even I assumed he would be spending his time on the roof of our building in the pouring rain.

I stood under and overhang to avoid the rain as best as I could, but the wind was making it almost impossible to avoid getting soaked.

"L! What are you doing?" I called over the noise of the storm. L didn't acknowledge me and I debated just leaving him to his business and going back inside. There was no reason for me to get soaked like L was; was there?

I stole a quick glance at the rest of the roof. The whole scene was bathed in a hue of gray; the concrete was gray, the iron girders that made up the skeleton of the building were gray, the various electrical towers were gray, and of course, there were the clouds and the rain. I knew if I were to remove my glasses I wouldn't be able to tell where the building ended and the skyline began, I knew the varying shades would bleed together like watercolours on a dripping canvas.

I decided to try again. "L! What are you doing?"

This time L heard me, he turned his head and met my eyes.

L's eyes.

There was something in L's eyes. Something I had never seen there before, something that, truthfully, kind of scared me. There was emotion in L's eyes. The calm, cool and calculating L had sadness in his eye. There was sadness, and worry and above all else, uncertainty.

No, I was wrong. There was no uncertainty in L's eyes. Whatever L feared, he was certain about it, he knew it warranted his worry.

I felt my chest tighten as I stepped out into the driving rain to stand by L; to stand by the greatest detective, to stand by justice.

"The bells. Do you hear them?" he asked me after a moment. He turned away from me and stared into the distance. I tried to hear them, I tried to hear the bells he was talking about, but I couldn't. I couldn't hear anything over the pounding rain... No, it wasn't the rain that was pounding in my ears, it was my heartbeat. "They're quite distracting. I wonder what it is, maybe a church or a wedding. Maybe a..."

Funeral.

It was the first thing that came to mind; L didn't even have to finish his sentence. Something was wrong and it seemed like L felt it too. Maybe L knew what was going on; maybe he knew something and wouldn't let me in on it. He was acting so strangely today.

"L, is... is something... is something wrong?" I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know the answer.

"Wrong?"

"Yeah. I mean..." I didn't know how to phrase it. L might think I was crazy, going off of feelings rather than cold hard facts. There was nothing to suggest that today would be any different from yesterday or the day before that.

...Nothing except a relentless ache in my chest that refused to subside.

"You should go inside; you're going to get soaked."

Going to? I already was. Ten seconds out from under the protection of my overhang and I had been completely drenched. The silver strands of hair that had escaped from my tight braids were glued to the side of my face and my socks were squishing inside of my shoes... Worst. Feeling. Ever... Maybe.

Alright L, I mouthed. I didn't say it. For whatever reason I could no longer find my voice.

I made it back inside and found a pair of towels in my bathroom. They were new towels and just didn't dry like they were supposed to. I ended up just going for a change of clothes before I headed back downstairs to face the others.

* * *

><p>They were all going off about something. There was some ruckus about ethics and human life. Apparently L had been granted approval from another country to use the Notebook. Every single member of the task force seemed to be talking at once, and it was driving me crazy. It wasn't bad enough we were dealing with a psycho killer who had a killer notebook, the paranormal, insane amounts of data that didn't seem to point us in any direction, my ominous feeling about the day or the fact that it was raining; NOW we were all bickering amongst ourselves.<p>

I dropped myself into an empty seat, pinched the bridge of my nose and waited for it all to end. Waited for someone to restore some normalcy to my life.

L came in then... with Light. They were both pretty soaked themselves and I wondered if it had been Light who had finally dragged L back inside. I didn't like that idea. I didn't like Light... and I'd almost forgotten about him. Now I had another straw to add to my camel's back. I pinched my nose again to combat the spontaneous nausea that had rolled in with the stuck up college boy.

The arguing continued for another minute or two until L started to explain how preparations were going to be made by Watari to transport the Notebook. A criminal was going to write in the Notebook and if he was still alive thirteen days later he would be pardoned and the entire case would be solved.

The entire case would be solved because if the criminal was still alive after thirteen days, the Thirteen Day rule in the note would be proved false. When the Thirteen Day rule was proved false Light and Misa's confinement would not prove their innocence. We could convict them. Light and Misa could be charged and this whole thing would be over.

This whole thing would come to an end.

Suddenly there was a flash of lightning and all the monitors in front of us started beeping and blinking red; there was a terrifying, ominous aura in the room. Something bad was going to happen... No, something bad WAS happening.

"What is this? A black out?" Matsuda called in the midst of the chaos.

"Watari?" No response. "Watari!" L called into the computer and I felt my skin grow cold and my blood start to boil. This was it. I knew it! This is what I had been feeling and dreading all day.

'ALL DATA DELETION' flashed on the screens, and my mind began to swim with panic as a high pitched tone rung from the computers.

"'All Data Deletion'?" I heard one of the members of the NPA ask beside me, "What the hell's going on?"

"I told Watrai, to make sure that he should erase all information, in the event that something were to happen to him." Watari? What was happening to Watari?

"If 'something' were to happen?"

"Could it be...?"

"Where is the Shinigami!" L demanded.

"Good question, I don't see it," Mr. Yagami answered.

My mind was reeling and I couldn't think; like a deer caught in the headlight's I completely froze up.

"It disappeared."

"What's going on?" I heard through the madness.

"Everyone, the Shiniga..."

I felt it. I swear I felt the life slip out of him in that moment.

I felt death.

I had never felt more scared, more alone, more empty in my entire life. Not when my parents died, not when I almost lost Near. I was watching L die right before my eyes and yet I felt like I was the one having the heart attack.

This wasn't supposed to happen! It wasn't supposed to end like this! L was not supposed to die! L was supposed to catch and convict Kira! Kira was not supposed to win.

It was not supposed to end like this!

I felt a lump in my throat and felt my eyes begin to sting as I watched L fall to the ground. I reached out to him but Light was there before me.

Light.

The devil himself had nothing on Light Yagami. At least everyone knew what to expect from the devil... Until that point I don't think I was aware of just how low Light Yagami would go.

Voices around me began to get fuzzy and distorted as I watched the scene play out in front of me. They were all shouting, all of them about something, but I got less from them than I did from a hive of bees.

I couldn't stand it!

Light was sitting there; sitting there, holding L while he died. That was just so wrong, that was just so twisted.

I felt my own inner demon take over me and I bared my teeth. "Get away from him! Get away from him now!" I rushed forward and shoved Light so hard he fell against the ground a foot away. I caught L in my own arms and held him. "L hang on! L hang on please! You can make it! We're going to get you out of here! Hang on!" I pleaded.

I felt them. I felt hot, angry tears flow out of my eyes and down my face.

"L please hang on!" I begged. With every passing moment I felt more and more of my heart shatter into smaller and smaller pieces. "Please L! No!"

But it was too late. I watched L, and he looked up and me with a vacant expression in his eyes. He was already gone. I felt the last of his life slip away as his eyes closed.

My eyes closed in turn and rivers of sorrow and bitterness poured down my face. I wept and wailed and it took three of the remaining task force members to finally pull me away from the lifeless body I was so desperately clinging to.

There was more and more shouting then and Light was making an absolute scene. How dare he! How dare he! I tasted bile in my mouth and I felt my lips curl back into a vicious snarl. How dare Light Yagami pretend to care! How dare he disgrace L's name by pretending to be the good guy. Light had won, wasn't that good enough for him? Light had succeeded in killing L and still he went on and on, still he feigned innocence. I hated him! I hated Light even more than I ever thought was possible.

Light went on about how they would all die, how they would all be next, and I almost wished that was the case. So long as Light would die too. I would never be happy until I saw Light, in the same position L was now, I would never be happy until I saw the life slip from Light's body.

Shouts and cries of terror resounded through the soulless room. L had died and all these men were worried about was themselves. It was disgusting, and it was disgusting that Light had led them into this situation. And what was the most atrocious thing of all? The most horrible thing in this whole situation was that Light was still breathing and L wasn't.

Light didn't even stop there. Light went on about the Shinigami. Light went on about how it was the creatures fault.

"Damn you Shinigami!"

"Damn you Light Yagami!" I cried over the chaos. "Damn you! YOU did this! YOU'RE the reason L died! It's YOU! YOU'RE Kira!" I made a move to attack Light. Arms swinging and teeth bared I launched myself at him, but I felt one, two, three people grab onto me and keep me from exacting my vengeance.

I thrashed and fought against my captors. I had become no better than a rabid animal, but I didn't care. What was it all for? What was all the hard work and dedication for if in the end people like Light won and people like L lost? The studying and the tests, the worksheets... What was it all for if in the end, evil really did triumph over good?

I couldn't stay here! I wouldn't stay here! Not a moment longer. Light was the killer and no one wanted to believe me. If I didn't get away from here, I would die too. Light wouldn't stop killing until all of those who opposed him would die. And right now, that was me. Right now I was the one accusing Light of being Kira. Right now I felt as though I was the only one left who would stand up for Justice.

I bolted away in the confusion, as the remaining members of the task force along with Light ran off to search for the Shinigami. I grabbed hardcopies of files and removed discs that had been saved from the deletion. I had used Matt's discs, the ones he had given me, to copy information from the hard drive. They hadn't been erased. I took what I could and hid the rest, and asked Aizawa (away from the others) to send me back to England. Siochiro may have been in charge, but I didn't need him or Light knowing where I was going.

I needed to stay alive as long as I could.

I needed to stay alive to make sure Light Yagami did not get away. I needed to stay alive to fight for justice.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>I'd like us all to take a moment of silence for the memory of the greatest detective in the world. I'd like us all to take a moment of silence for the memory of L, for the memory of Lawliet.

...

...

...

Now then, get this, there's only one more chapter of this story! O.o yes, you heard me, one more chapter! Well, one more chapter and then an epilogue. IMan, isn't that crazy? I had no idea my little FanFic would come so far! I hope you guys stick around for the sequel. That'll be up in no time too.

Have a good night everyone :)


	21. Chapter 21

**Author's Note: **Wholly crap! I almost did it AGAIN! D: I almost lost another whole chapter! When will I pay attention! I was able to save this one though before it was completely lost. See, I have this bad habit of accidentally writing/saving over old chapters (usually chapters I haven't posted yet, otherwise it wouldn't be a problem,) and yeah! It's not even deleting them, 'cause I could go into my recycle bin right away and get them, but nooo, I have to save over them. My gosh!

Anyway...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>December 5, 2007<strong>

The rain was pouring outside and my breath was fogging up the window. My eyes were burning trying to hold back my tears, and it wouldn't work for much longer. I hadn't cried since before I could remember. I'd never needed to; there had been nothing in my life worth crying over. Not even pain. I'd always had a high tolerance for pain. But this wasn't like physical pain, this was emotional pain, and it cut much more deeply than any physical pain I'd ever known. I hugged my knees closer to my chest and looked out at the street from my window.

I'd been delivered back to Wammy's shortly after L's death. I'd spent the last month locked in my room; not eating, not sleeping, not talking to anyone. Linda had tried to get me to talk for the first two weeks and then had given up. Matt came in regularly and tried to engage me, but it just wasn't happening. I hadn't seen Mello, and Near had become something closer to a ghost story than a real being. It seemed as though he was as much of a shut in as I was.

I was left with a terrible emptiness. It felt like I was just a shell, and had nothing left inside of me, no soul, so heart, no lungs, no blood, no air. Just nothing. L's death had taken much more from me than I ever thought it could. Maybe it was because I hadn't ever believed L could die. Maybe it was my fight with Mello in August or maybe it was that everything since moving to Wammy's in the first place over a year ago had just finally caught up with me. But whatever it was, I was a mess. A lonely, empty, mess. And whatever it was, L's death had pushed me here.

I tried telling myself over and over again that L wasn't dead. I tried telling myself that this was some kind of cruel joke, or a bad dream. I tried telling myself that at any moment, I'd see L walking down the street, or driving in a car, and turn up the driveway to Wammy's. But I knew I'd never see that. I knew that this wasn't a cruel joke or a bad dream; I knew that L was dead, I'd seen it myself. I could see him there before me, mid-sentence he just stopped. His body falling towards the floor, the abrasive light from the computer monitors throwing shadows in twisted directions and the ghostly glow of the emergency light's playing across L's already pale features. And then there was the other Light. The vile demon that had caught and held L while he died... L had died.

Apparently Mr. Yagami convinced his people to keep the investigation open, apparently Light had taken over for L and there was no 'apparently' about how that information made me sick to my stomach.

I pulled the teddy bear off the chair beside me, the teddy bear L had given me; I buried my face in it.

I wouldn't cry, I wouldn't cry. I just needed something else to think about. I slowed my laboured breathing for a moment, and listened. Through the floor below me was Roger's office and I could hear a voice, a raised voice. Someone was shouting, it sounded like Mello.

Suddenly a door slammed, and I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs, and down the hall where another door slammed. I went back to gazing out the window, but was pulled out of my trance when the door down the hallway slammed again, followed by the footsteps. Down the stairs this time. I took little interest in them, until I realised their significance. Out the window I watched Mello, suitcase in hand, start heading down the street.

What!

No!

Mello!

I didn't think, I just reacted. I launched myself off the window seat and through my door, and all but breaking my neck as I raced down the stairs and out the front door.

No shoes, no coat. It was early December, but it was raining instead of snowing. The cold bit and stung at me but I paid no attention to it. The rain pelted me and soaked me to my bones but I paid no attention to it.

I had other things to worry about.

"Mello!" I cried as I raced down the walkway of Wammy's House. "Mello!" I cried again as I made it to the street. He couldn't leave too! No! I'd just lost L, and now Mello was leaving too! "Mello!" I cried, and I was no longer able to hold back my tears. Like a dam being breached it seemed like my tears flowed down my face in a flood. I scanned up the street and down, but between my glasses fogging up and my tears I could barely tell the time of day. "Mello! Please wait! Don't leave!" Did he go left? Or right? I ran to my right, teddy bear still in hand, "Mello!" The world got more obscure as my tears got thicker. "Mello," I sobbed. I was running harder now, paying no attention to where I was going, I was completely unaware of where I was, until I heard it, the blood curdling screech of car breaks as the four ton machine skidded towards me.

* * *

><p>I spent a week in the hospital and over a month in a cast. I spent three months in physiotherapy and over six months trying to learn to walk again.<p>

It probably didn't help that I wasn't walking, I all but never left my room. It probably didn't help that I wasn't eating either. Matt did his best to make sure I ate something, but you can't live off tea and dry toast. Then again, I wasn't really alive; not by any one's standards... except maybe a mortician's.

"Jewel," I didn't answer, "Jewel!"

I turned my head away from the door and towards the window.

"I'm leaving Jewel. I'm sorry. It's time for me to move on too."

L had died, Mello had run away, Near had started his own investigation, Linda didn't talk to me anymore (I didn't blame her, I wouldn't want to talk to me either, and of course there was the fact that i wasnt talking.) And now Matt was leaving too.

The story of my life.

I'm surprised Roger hadn't kicked me out all these months I was sulking in the window. He probably would have if I hadn't kept my grades up. Linda may've not been talking to me, but she always made sure to bring me my work from my classes. Now that Near, Mello and Matt were leaving, Linda and I would be next in line. That was a scary thought. I'd pity the world if anything happened the Near... No, I pitied the world already because of what had happened to L.

"Take care of yourself Jewel. Please."

I didn't say anything back to him. I didn't tell him that I didn't want him to leave me. I didn't tell him that I didn't want to be left alone. I didn't tell him that he was the only one I had left.

"Don't hesitate to call if you need anything or whatever."

I didn't say anything back to him. I didn't tell him that I needed something right now. I didn't tell him that I needed him to stay.

"Goodbye Gem."

I heard the wooden door close softly behind me, and quiet footsteps echo down the halls.

"Goodbye Matt."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Yeah, the last couple chapters have been a little shorter than usual. The next one will be too, but I figured it was better to organize them like this rather than try and cram two or more chapters together.

So...

Today is the Tri-Chapter Reader Review Poll :D ...I wanted to do 21 chapters just so I could get one more of these in, LOL. So my friend Kait and I were talking about this before she left (she went to South America,) and on account of this was such a sad chapter, I would like to know...

What was the happiest moment of your life?

I have a couple myself I think, but if I had to pick one it would be the time I got to see my older brother after seven years. It had been forever since we'd seen each other because he lives so far away, but one day he came back to town and he, my little brother and I spent the day together. It was so wonderful because I missed him so much and we barely ever got to even talk to each other, let alone see each other you know :)


	22. Chapter 22

**Author's Note: **EPILOGUE! Last update for this story my people :D The prequel is now, officially finished! :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

* * *

><p><strong>April 13, 2012<strong>

How long had it been? I wondered half-heartedly. I knew if I took even a micro second to stop and think about it, I'd know; but then, I really didn't want to remember... I'd much rather forget the continuous nightmares that plagued me night after night.

I tossed the covers off of my bed and faced the chilled morning air. I shivered for just a moment and sat up. My right ankle was sore this morning; it usually was if it got too cold. I felt like an old person, having aches and ailments and I wasn't even twenty yet. I'd gotten far too old before my time; physically, mentally and emotionally. Especially emotionally.

Maybe it was just the nightmares, maybe it was the memories, or maybe it was my sore ankle, maybe I was just getting old or paranoid, or old AND paranoid, but for whatever reason, I had a bad feeling about today.

I started the warm water running in my bath tub. I had plans to take a shower, but I wanted to soothe my ankle first. I filled a white plastic bin and carried it into the living room and set it in front of my favourite chair. I flopped down into it and as I dropped my cold foot into the gloriously warm water I noticed a red light blinking on the answering machine on the table beside me.

I had a habit of unplugging my phones before I went to sleep. There usually wasn't anyone who tried to phone me in the middle of the night; there usually wasn't anyone dumb enough to try and phone me in the middle of the night... usually. I hit the play button and knew right away who it would be.

"Hey love, it's Carter," Of course it was, "just wondering if you're doing anything tonight, or tomorrow night, or whenever..."

"Go away Carter," I whined and sneered at the phone. The recording went on for another moment or two until the machine finally cut him off. "See Carter, even the answering machine doesn't even want to hear you talk. Now that says something," I gave a sarcastic smile and got up to find a towel.

I took a shower, had a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash-browns, toast and strawberry jam, a bowl of fruit and two cups of tea. I got dressed in my faded blue jeans and a black, cut off tee-shirt. There wasn't a dress code at the cafe, I could wear whatever I wanted, and I always did. I yawned and then remembered that it had been quite a while since I went to the gym last. I'd have to fit that into my schedule sometime soon.

The afternoon sun shone into my window and I checked the clock hanging on my wall. Twelve noon, it was time to head out to work.

I slid my feet into my boots and made sure to slip my brass knuckles and switch blade into my coat pockets. I never left home without them... you never knew who you were going to run into in this city and especially on my end of town.

Finally, I picked up an old, faded black scarf that I had hanging by the door. I took it gingerly in my hands and wrapped it gently around my neck. I just couldn't bear to part with the darn thing. Besides, it was practical in any case.

I walked to work for my afternoon shift at the coffee house. I didn't really like coffee, I preferred gum. I dug my hand into my pocket and came out with a stick and popped it in my mouth.

Bubblegum. I tasted bubblegum.

* * *

><p>"Morning," a cheery voice greeted me when I walked into the cafe.<p>

Morning people, I couldn't stand morning people.

"Morning," I yawned. It wasn't even really morning anymore; it was almost one o'clock... It still felt like the morning though. Whether I liked coffee or not, I just might need one to get me through the day.

I was in a trance for most of my shift. I wasn't making mistakes, but I was definitely taking longer than usual to get things done. I still wasn't feeling too well about the day. It felt like something bad was going to happen. Not bad like, world destruction bad, more like, pain in the ass bad.

I told myself I just needed to get over it.

I downed about four lattes, and three espressos but only started to wake up when I was about to leave. Coffee never really ever did it for me. Energy drinks sure, but coffee, not so much.

"Jewel!" an urgent voice snapped at me. I jumped about three feet in the air and almost upset a tray of mugs on the counter beside me.

"What!" I yelped. "Don't do that? You scared me half to death."

"Sorry, but I called you like, three times, you didn't answer."

I stared over at the petite blonde on the other side of the counter. She had a small dusting of dark brown freckles on her nose and eyelashes thicker than the bristles on a broom.

"What?" I asked more calmly.

"Your shifts been over for like, ten minutes, you've just been standing there."

An older, heavier woman came up behind the blonde with a pot of coffee in her hand and they both stared at me with worried expressions on their faces.

"You've been kind of out of it today hun, are you alright?" the older one asked.

"Sure, I'm just tired," I faked a smile and walked through the empty dining area over to the clothes rack by the front door. I took my scarf and coat from the stand and bundled myself up in them.

"You take care of yourself hun, don't want anything to happen to you, now do we? You're the only one who'll close Friday nights," the older lady winked at me and the three of us shared a small chuckle.

"Yeah sure," I smiled. "I'll see you guys soon," I smiled again and let myself out the front door.

I walked about four blocks before I started to hear it. I walked about four blocks before I started to hear footsteps following me.

Today was just not my day.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Well, that's it. I hope you liked it guys ^_^ If you've got any questions, or I messed up anywhere, or just anything, lemme know.

Keep an eye out for my sequel :D I'll probably get right on that :)

**A Special Thanks: **I would like to formally acknowledge the following for their glorious reviews, support, and great ideas for my story :)

xLostMelody, snowflakeyukiharuno, HarryPotterMangaGleek, KiriKatana, Genuinely-Unique, Roboraptorxdeathnotefan, jeffhardyluvsme, allyjj, The Dreamer16, The Night's Wish, Glitterthorn, Shoujok, RandomAsRainbows, windwolf1988, Im-Ina-Tent, Strange Amairaini XIII and kyoyalover (who only got around to reviewing at chapter 18 ;P lol.)

Not to mention all those who awesomely favourited/subscribed, and to all my readers in general :D (...If I missed anybody, I am sincerely sorry.)

You all made writing this story worthwhile =^_^=


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